Meluzyna Le Frag 2022

The time has come. The strong smoke of her wood fires can be smelled even here, deep underwater. The light of the full moon shines down into the depths, making the green of the water glow. Once again, you will leave your underwater realm. Even if the magic costs you strength. For a few hours, you take on human form and go ashore. At first, there is always the pain when your mermaid tail becomes human legs, but you know this is only temporary. And yet... Even with your first uncertain step, you know it is wrong. ... They will laugh at you. It will hurt you. But you must do it. You want to do it. Again.
What drives you? When that trading ship almost sank in a storm and lost its cargo to your underwater realm, you saw him at the railing, his beautiful brave face, marked by effort and worry, which has since dominated your thoughts and feelings. He looked deeply into your eyes then, in a brief moment of intense closeness. The memory of that encounter is inextricably linked to the scents of incense, cardamom, anxiety-sweaty cumin, pepper, and pine resin from the ship's cargo, as they mingled with the smell of the water. Is he still alive? Could he love you, even if he saw and recognized you in your true form? Once again, you are ready to expose yourself to danger and ridicule - for your love, which is stronger than the fear of being seen and recognized. To be laughed at and rejected. For the tiny chance of finding him among the people on land.
Love, my dears,
Is insensitive to wisdom.
And for one shared moment,
Forgets the ridiculous.
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Dear people, don’t come here with the dull mist from Loriot's poetic satire! The water here may be murky, but everything else is clear and expressive: a wild, strong scent from Carbonnel. I would have blindly placed it towards an older Beaufort with dark artisan smoke. Right from the start, deep green-dark seawater with all the murkiness that swims around in it, and intense wood smoke whose scent penetrates underwater. The smell of the sea keeps washing up again and again. The dominance of the smoke slowly weakens, allowing the other notes to come through. Increasingly, greenish incense is present. Now I can occasionally perceive salty amber. It becomes fresher, as if a fresher wind is rising, blowing the green scent of pine needles and ozonic freshness over the coast, bringing some of that freshness into the water as well. During this phase, I increasingly see less of a resemblance to Sea Angel and more to Beaufort's Fathom V, a touch less floral and spicier instead. Complex, complemented by slightly sweaty cumin, resinous-herbaceous (sage), earthy-leathery notes, bitter myrrh, and sweet benzoin.
Only the beginning with the strong smoke is conceptually a bit exhausting; after that, there is a long and wonderful journey that I can enjoy and that I really like. The color is for me a dull, murky green with bright, fresh specks here and there. The connection between life in the sea and life on land is wonderfully achieved here.
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The figure of Melusine has been depicted in myths and legends since the Middle Ages as having a lower body of a snake or mermaid or a dragon tail. It usually revolves around Melusine loving a knight under the conditions of a special taboo of observation, and he must not see her in her true form as a water fairy. Artistic representations often show Melusine in a tub behind a door, so her lower body is concealed. It usually ends badly when the knight breaks the taboo. Variants of the story have existed since antiquity, e.g., in the myth of Cupid and Psyche, and (gender-reversed) in Elsa's urge to know everything about Lohengrin. But wanting to know everything is madness. Certain things may not be shared. Secrets sometimes protect both sides, the giver and the receiver. Whoever tries to make the other’s secret transparent at all costs destroys what made trust and love possible. After the loss of the secret, no embraces will help anymore, and a trivial, disenchanted world remains. And if we turn the perspective and look from Melusine's own viewpoint, it is about the fear of being seen and recognized.
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On the homepage of Le Frag, Agnieszka Lewandowska writes about how she loved the song of Meluzyna in her childhood in Poland from the iconic film musical "The Academy of Master Kleks" (1985). In Meluzyna's song, it is about an unhappy, spurned love: "Meluzyna loved someone so much that she is not afraid of death or rejection. He is the one she tries to find on her secret journeys to the mainland. That is why the aromas of sea and land are united in this fragrance."
This is wonderfully realized here: a scent of sea and land. It tells a story that becomes increasingly reconciliatory, ultimately reconciling with one’s own feelings - against the fear of expressing them.

Thank you to BeJot for the sample! You knew I could do something with it.

Meluzyna's song from the film "Podróże Pana Kleksa" from 1985, sung by Małgorzata Ostrowska:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=CXeVgusVc40
Improved sound version from 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Tfodk95O_rQ
For the interesting book source of the film:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Die_Akademie_des_Meisters_Klex
https://3seaseurope.com/mr-blots-
academy-dark-subtext/