Quentin Bisch is one of the new shooting stars in the industry, but what really has to be said to him is that he is honestly striving for his own handwriting, especially a modern one. This is not easy for someone like me, who was influenced by the creations of the 70s and 80s when it came to fragrances, sometimes.
I can't do anything with such violently applauded scents like 'Sauvage' or 'Aventus' and if in any scent pyramid the word 'Ambroxan' appears, it's already the end of the day for me.
But when I recently saw in one of my favourite perfumeries the first fragrance created by Bisch for Marc-Antoine Barrois called 'B683', I had to test it - despite the bad word 'Ambroxan' in the description.
At first I thought: Wow, a really great leather fragrance with a bearable modern touch, but then, after a good while, the disillusionment: Ambroxan! This miserable stuff that ruined every scent for me and somehow makes everything smell like 'Axe'.... Too bad, too bad. (The scent isn't that bad after all, but more of it elsewhere.)
Ganymede' I took without much hope into my hand, sprayed a little on a test strip and thought: aha, this time Calone.
Arriving home, I pulled the strip out of my pocket again, smelled it again, but the Calone had disappeared. Instead all at once: bitter-spicy saffron, a curry-like note and light suede - I liked that!
The next day I went back, sprayed something on my skin and was instantly torn back and forth. Again this Calone smelling a thousand times, which can be described either as aquatic or ozoneic and should associate water, sea, spray etc. - 'Cool Water' and its millions of descendants send their greetings!
Behind this watery-salty, airy aspect, but soon fruity nuances flash out, accompanied by an increasingly clear suede chord that somehow reminds me of my beloved suede clarks from the late 70s...
Above all, however, the complex, austere spiciness of saffron dominates the events in the centre of the fragrance. In contrast to 'B683', however, this spicy-leathery chord does not tend in a dark, earthy direction, but in the complete opposite. Here everything is bright and well ventilated.
After some time, a no less complex fragrance of immortelle slowly emerges from the shadows of the fund compared to saffron, corresponding wonderfully with its curry nuances to the slowly spitting spice.
But this strawflower chord has it all, because it is worked out by Quentin Bisch without any sweetness (Annick Goutal's 'Sables'!) and exudes an infinitely long while of its crisply dust-dry, hay-like spice chord, along with the already mentioned curry notes.
Yes, the scent is really very persistent and I have been asked several times about this Immortelle note - mostly when I didn't even notice it anymore
At least from someone who asked me about it, I know that he is a great Corsican friend and loves the scent of the macchia.
The next morning I can still clearly see the last traces of this strawy dry blossom and, unlike some other fragrances, which can fade much earlier, as they have put a lot of effort into me, I am happy about it in the case of 'Ganymede', because the fragrance does not - at least not - strain me at any stage.
On the contrary. Quentin Bisch has created a wonderfully present, yet not loud fragrance that takes a beautiful 3-act course and is perfectly calibrated. The ozonic beginning, the leathery-spicy middle section and the immortelle finish blend perfectly into a really well and carefully composed fragrance.
Both 'Ganymede' and 'B683' are thoroughly modern works. B683' may, as a genuine leather scent, still have certain references to the great leather heroes of the past, especially to 'Knize Ten' and 'Cabochard', but at 'Ganymede' I don't find these references anymore, or only to a very small extent. The already mentioned 'Sables' would occur to me, but only because of the prominent Immortelle note, otherwise the intersections are rather manageable. Or the old 'Eau de Monsieur' from the 80s, also by Annick Goutal, which was much too classic 'Eau', but had a similar dominant strawflower chord in the back.
No, in my opinion 'Ganymede' is a small modern masterpiece, which perhaps inspires me so much precisely because I have almost lost faith in the abilities of modern perfumery
But lo and behold, it's still possible!
I also like the name: 'Ganymede', the largest Jupiter moon, under whose ice surface a huge saltwater ocean is said to be hidden. This saltwater aspect can be found in the scent as well as the macchia-impregnated coastal air of Crete, to whose inhabitants the legend of Ganymede and Zeus as a pair of lovers goes back, which legitimized love among men in antiquity.
B683', the fantasy planet borrowed from the 'Little Prince' of Saint-Exupery is Jupiter/Zeus and Ganymed the moon of Jupiter, respectively the lover of Zeus ...
Wonderfully intertwined sources of inspiration, right?!
Small addition: the spray mechanism is fantastic! In the 70s, instead of 'vaporizers', there were so-called 'atomizers' who finely fogged the scent. I am reminded of these 'atomizers' by the spraying mechanism of Barrois' fragrances. However, this time the scent, atomized into the smallest particles, actually reaches the skin and does not breathe in all directions.
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