Sorabji
Eau de Parfum, January Scent Project (2025)

When contemplating perfumes, I often listen to music. This is evident in the numerous references I make in past writing. The link between the two has increasing importance for me, and when wearing Sorabji for the first time, I chose to accompany it with its namesake's piano pieces: so many peculiar tonal colors, big dissonance and reassuring resolve, dramatic swells and mysterious lulls, unsettling at times, playful at others.

It is no secret that John Biebel and I are long-time friends, and he offered me a bottle of his Sorabji recently, which I was so pleased to accept. I will freely admit it's hard to avoid bias when it's a friend's creative output, but I assure you I am consistently riveted with John's work. The protagonist here is a finessed osmanthus accord, with added apricot fruitiness, fleshy in feel, punctuated by a black pepper so that my nose reads an unusual umami sensation. Here, I am reminded somewhat of Diptyque's now-discontinued Kimonanthe, yet while that had a more of a medicinal alchemy feel, Sorabji is relaxed and warm in temperament.

It is the red Morocco book leather accord further into its development, however, that most enthralls me here. A dry, aged-sweet amber folded into this goatskin leather makes me want to lose myself in the knowledge realm of stacks upon stacks of books, ever made more obsolescent in the advancing information age. I romanticize the life of a recluse, much like that of Sorabji, perfectly content to be ensconced in one's asceticism, discipline, and art.