Repeating dive into the still unreleased peninsular wild Malaysian from TOL - The Oud Lab, called 'Malacca Seiki';
'Seiki' 世紀 meaning 'a century' in Japanese - in allusion to the approximate age of the source tree; and so it is a single near-centennial tree Oud, incense-grade, about 7 years of age since the distillation, by no-soak modern method:
The dynamic beauty of the oil lies in particular combined effect of three factors I discern -
1- the richness of the balanced yet opposing voices;
2- the notable degree of Abstraction (as opposed to the literal trait) of the notes projection;
3- and the notes' evolution into the Depth.
First, The Voices - a pleasant, virtuosic really, duet of two intertwined voices - or rather two choires (as their voices are quite richly textured) at the opposite sides of the stage - like in ancient greek drama - singing the same melody in different registers, what captivates the nose from the first breathe-in -
The sweet choire - bright, flying high above, vanillic-chocolade-caramelic-apple-floral-fine suede,
and the savory choire - the powerful yet velvety bass hum of Ancient Wood in the lead - resonated by powdered rocky-mineralic - humid earth & moss (petrichor) - and forest foliage of various shades (from budding-fresh to wilting); together they create both the volume and the general expansive radiance - which is a functional excellence regardless of the beauty in the character. Shall I add, that with time, the savory choire becomes slightly more dominant and with a certain salinity, very lightly spiced with terpenic sap, while the sweet one morphes into more fresh floral, airy and less caramel-related. Worth noting that while becoming ever more airy, the sweet part does not disappear, remaining delicately sustained till the end of drydown, just ever more merging with the wood and earth.
The second aspect of captivation is the Abstraction - all those tones are not clear-cut defined but rather smoothly 'veiled' - softly hinting rather than outlining - like if made with wet aquarel; in fact, except the ample ancient wood' notes, all the other labels are true only to a certain degree - the flowers are not specific, the vanilla is rather an adjective about the mineralic powdered rocks- than a noun standing on its own, and all the secondary notes are flitting around like butterflies making it difficult to capture the exact pattern on their aromatic 'wings' - instead of more common direct and obvious straight-forwardness. It is the high degree of Abstraction in the character and Impressionistic in style - what gives this Oud an evocative power of imaginative aromatic storytelling, leading to -
the third aspect of 'Malacca Seiki' - is evolution into the Depth (both virtual and metaphoric): as the scent progresses and both the jungle-saturated humidity and the airiness grow while the sweeteness and the savory choir come closer and closer,
- yet most importantly, the whole double choir descends an octave and goes underground - as turning into a cellar - but a palatial one - spacious and finely decorated, elfine-like earthy space: the antique-wooden panels are intricately carved with mythical creatures and whiplashing vegetation, the whimsical flowers and the leaves are woven into tapestries on the walls depicting adventures of the knights and faeries in stylized forests and gardens, and the clever invisible ventilation brings wafts of fresh humid air into that underground castle space...
The scent resolves itself into a harmonious, effusive, airy-woody enchantment of the drydown - bestowing peace of mind like a happy ending of a fully resolved dramatic fairytale, soothing the heart and bringing the smile of childlike satisfaction from a good story, that makes you (me) to believe in all the good in the world and the magic still hiding in the old jungles, and the fairies are still living under the roots of centennial trees in their hidden abodes perceiveable to humans only by the beautiful scent...
Effortlessly enchanting.
