Shaking

Lonely and forgotten by time, as if the earth had opened up and swallowed the little monastery for centuries, so it lay, its silhouette rising timidly out of the mist.

Schönthal... in crooked and smudged letters , so it was written on the letter, the date
2 April 1525.

Dear Albrik,

with dismay I have heard your bitter lamentation over the death of our beloved parents.
How cruel the superiors can be, just to meet your demands for power and profit.
What was left for our parents and you?
To live a life less than a common rat?
Working themselves to death with no prospect of a better life?
How well I can understand our parents when the news came from Württemberg to join the uprisings.
Who could have guessed that from a spark, a fire would break out over us?
I hope the letter reaches you before your escape...please come to me beloved brother...
Everything else then.
Benjas


Albrik, at the end of his rope, was glad...
Glad to forget for a moment the past and the painful memories of those he had been forced to leave behind...
Glad to place his own life in the hands of God, averting fate, and knowing henceforth to lead a virtuous life, in harmony with himself.
Although he was aware that the penance he would have to do would be hard to make up in a lifetime....

With the last of his strength, and in the protective mist, he reached the monastery wall; slowly inching his way until a small side door caught his attention.
The three short fist bumps on the wooden gate restrained in the misty grey..

Suddenly something stirred behind the door...footsteps could be heard, frantic activity.
All at once the door fell open and Albrik stumbled inside.

Immediately a thick, warm smoke hit him...a smoke he remembered from his uncle.
Cooper was his trade and he loved, since childhood, to watch his uncle burn out the barrels.
Childhood...he had long forgotten that term.

His eyes watered, but he could make out a shadow through his tired pupils, which, becoming more and more distinct, was coming towards him.

"My dear brother, you made it"
Benajs, all clad in animal fur and leather, stood before him...
Smaller he had become his brother and thinner, where once a monastic robe covered his belly, only a penitent shirt peeked out, flapping loosely beneath the leather robe.

"Let me look at you brother"
..Albrik too had changed, his cheerful and benevolent eyes had wandered almost all the way into his skull, the wrinkles on his forehead deep, his hair only in a few places.
Benjas shuddered:

"Come brother sit down, you must be thirsty, drink"
Benjas handed him a bottle with with a thick substance.
"This will give you new strength, our monastery's own liqueur with a little honey and all sorts of spices added, that awakens the spirits"

Taking a large sip, Albrik immediately felt a pleasant warmth rise within him.
How long had it been since he had slept, let alone drank or eaten anything...
All tension drained from his face.... there he was again his brother, for a brief moment just as he remembered him before Benjas had moved to the monastery, only to find, the bottle not yet quite touching the table, his face again in deep wrinkles.

"You must be tired and exhausted, you'll be safe here....come I'll show you to your room, you can rest there, we'll talk tomorrow"

Benajs led his brother through a narrow corridor into a small room, sparsely furnished with a table, a chair and a bed.
The air in the room was a bit stale and smoky, but that didn't matter much to Albrik, he just liked the comforting warmth, probably in part because he hadn't felt it in a long time.

"I'll let you get some rest if anything is, my parlor is right across the street"
"Thank you Benajs"...these were the first 2 words Albrik had said since his arrival...
"You don't have to thank me, you are my brother...never forget that"

Through the liquor and the deprived weeks, Albrik fell into a deep sleep...
Nightmares gnawed, like ominous shadows, at his soul....
There he stood at night, his spirit rapt from his body, alone in the middle of the village square...
the houses around him were on fire, unable to do anything he looked down at himself...
warm resin ran around his feet, from the distance the voices of the damned...
rising more and more shrilly, 2 dark figures came towards him, arm in arm...
emerging from the smoke, they were now clearly visible...
it was father and mother..
but where once their faces had been, hogsheads adorned their countenances..
a black, hot mass they poured from your mouths...

"Father, mother....forgive me..... i could not save you"...

falling to his knees, more and more of the black liquid poured over him until only his head protruded...
everything had become still, almost peaceful...
just a black sea...

"I just need to submerge myself and let go"
fully he sank into the darkness and...

awoke!




Bathed in sweat and gasping for breath, he awoke...
It dawned on the horizon...
Drowsy and the night still in his limbs he strode down the aisle....
Where were the other monastic brothers, anyway...
He knocked on his brother's door, no one opened..
Cautiously he crept further along the long narrow corridor, suddenly coming upon a large, sooty door..
He slowly felt for a round doorknob and gave it a spirited tug..
With a loud creak, the door flew open..

Albrik, somewhat surprised by his strength himself, was immediately blinded by the rising sun!
As his eyes become somewhat accustomed to the light conditions, he stands in the courtyard of the monastery,
many of the monastic brothers are in the monastery garden, tending to the vegetables and perennials that grow there.
The sun's rays warm his face and from the reflection of the stones shining in the sun, his brother emerges.

He puts his arm around his shoulder
"I may not be able to take away your pain, but together it is possible for us to find a new home here"

Tears fill Albrik's eyes...
He knows it will be a long road for Him....
but now....
now he can let go....

"Hold up sign"
'There should actually be a statement here'

I'm too upset, that's why a short comment!

OK the statement is there after all, as an introduction!
:-P

"L'Air des Alpes Suisses" in tart, without powder and in good! With a visit to the campfire!
Love you I would; were the H&S not so subterranean!

I must strongly advise against buying it!
The fragrance would certainly be a 9+ points fragrance, (a summer walk through the fresh alpine air, then we go to the coniferous forests of Central Europe and at the end we all sit around the campfire) would not be there the "100% organic claim"!

With all 5 test subjects - after 45 minutes the walk is over - end, out...no more condition....the broom wagon collects everyone!

90€ for 30ml and not even cologne durability..

Would you get here a fragrance with proper "course"...what would that be a dream!

From the tart airy citrus, past to the great wood chords to the smoky medicinal base (stone oil + birch)...beautiful!

Sympathetic brand, sympathetic and very obliging perfumer...everything fits...well almost and that is unfortunately essential.

Thereby the fragrance was 18 months in development..

Really very sad, but so I must unfortunately devalue the fragrance.

"Mayday mayday..depth sounder down..
try to land..
see an island made of Haribo TropiFrutti"...

..Dracula was lonely...and so he escaped more and more often into daydreams to escape the dark, cold and musty cave where he dwelled during the day.
How he would love to spend the days, in far more southern climes...

Through the centuries of isolation, his self-esteem and his zest for life had suffered badly.
The vitamin D deficiency did the rest..pale pale skin, dark circles under his eyes, hair loss...what had become of the once proud Vlad..
It could not go on like this..
If he couldn't go to the South Seas, at least the South Seas should come to him..

Today my life begins anew!
...

As night fell, he flew purposefully to the small grocer's shop in his county seat of Bran. Slipping nimbly into the store through a window that was ajar, he maneuvered swiftly into the sparsely stocked fruit section.
Bananas, figs and some funny looking fruit in the shape of a star, had caught his attention, the store did not have much else to offer.
He stoutly grabbed a stray fruit net and eagerly scooped the fruit into the bag.
Through the window he had now opened, he disappeared, bag packed, silently into the night.

Back in his cave, his heart throbbed with excitement as vigorously as he had not experienced since the year 1336, when he took his first sip of blood.
In an instant, his excitement turned to sheer horror...Blood!..

Bananas, figs, star fruit???
What had he been thinking...since his transformation, he couldn't eat anything else, only blood.
Humans called this strange disease "fructose intolerance"...whether he was also afflicted with it, he didn't know...only he was unable to eat such a thing.
His horror gave way to sheer rage and so he hurled the net into the furthest corner -his expression stiffened and with a gesture of disgust he disappeared into the depths of the cave system.

Minutes, hours, days passed without even a sign of life from the cave..
Suddenly, after 2 weeks of silence, something stirred, but it wasn't Vlad, a family of martens had made themselves at home in his absence.
Attracted by the scent of rotting fruit, a pair of martens now lived there, what had once belonged to the proud Dracula.

The animals were just feasting on the remains of the muddy fruit when, coming out of the darkness, a shadow tore one of the martens without warning into the same.
A short yelp and crack was heard, then silence.
The other animal just managed to save itself with a spirited leap into a crevice.

The shadowy figure stepped out of the darkness...it was Vlad.... emaciated and close to madness - the long pointed teeth flashed from the lifeless body of the marten...
Sadness was in his red under-rimmed eyes..
Had he really thought he could escape his fate and want more from life?

He shuddered at his own thoughts and.........woke up!

Darkness had come in over the little town...
....a strange dream...how long had he been asleep?

No matter...he knew only one thing:

The hunt is on!

Without much preliminaries, we go straight to it:

The fragrance creates for me the unbelievably great balancing act between classic perfume art and modern nobility
Like tearing open a wooden spice cabinet and inhaling the manifold scents and aromas deeply through your nose!
Clove, pepper, oregano, basil, lavender, allspice, cinnamon.... everything flies one somehow around the nose, but to my amazement ...very coherent!

Here you really have to express a great praise to Mr. Staudt, the seemingly endless motley variety of fragrances, steered into orderly paths.
Is namely the first herbal rush evaporated, come woody notes, paired with a beautiful subliminal hay aroma added.
Here is for me the scent progression most balanced and stands out in my opinion, even from the pure "kitchen herbs" crackers.

The fragrance impression shifts more and more into the woody-oriental, which gives the fragrance a more modern touch, without losing its "oldschool" roots.
So everything lingers for a long time, until it can come to rest on a sweet-tart base!

We're talking 6 hours of fragrance experience here, with a nice strong sillage that then retreats further, peu à peu, to make way for a very long base.
Over 12 hours of durability are certainly given.

To make a long story short:
Here were(my humble nose after)the individual fragrance notes so finely interwoven with each other, that this fragrance is in no way inferior to the timeless men's classics!
As I already wrote in my little statement,classic men's perfume elements carefully meet more modern nuances from the Orient and lift the fragrance so into the modern era.
A true feast for every perfume lover,who mourns many an old fragrance,but is not closed to new elements!

PS. Even if I speak all the time of men's classics, the fragrance is of course also to wear by women.

Only who approaches here with the expectation of a "La Vie est Belle L'Eau de Parfum", but will quickly burst into tears, because he gets to know with "Pour Homme" real perfume art, which has long discarded the stigma "sweetness" u. "flowers" and so swings to new heights!

As I have already written in my short statement, Bruno Acampora succeeded in a small stroke of genius with the signing of Enfant Terrible Miguel Matos and the subsequent release of the perfume line "Acampora Fifty Four"

Whether and how these wild creations have a positive effect on the business of the traditional company, I do not like to judge.
Nevertheless, I am very happy that companies nowadays still have the courage to dare something and not to be totally meaningless or to ingratiate themselves with the mass market (yes, "Wilgermain" especially you.... please feel addressed; "Caron" and "Le Galion" only have to be ashamed of themselves at certain points and visit the "Silent Stairs") to sink!

Apparently the jurors of the Art&Olfaction Awards 2020 saw it the same way and awarded the perfume in the category "Independent"

Note in passing: Although this award means nothing in my eyes and especially nose, if you look at the other winner "Nimbis" of the Art&Olfaction Award 2020 in the category "Artisan".

I don't know what the jury rode in on, but it's a mystery to me

Here, it is not the "courage" for something new that is rewarded, but simply the "courage" to be so different that it must be art again.
Prepotent narrow-mindedness is what I would call it

As a blueprint of Henkel, Bayer and BASF what is possible in the "chemistry kitchen" today ....OK (Orto Parisi don't get angry, you will win again, I'm sure...submit "Fantomas") but as a scent of "falling stars", it is more than questionable to deliver something like that.

Art is art and actually one should be glad that new things appear at all, but in this category there were sooooo strong scents that I honestly doubt my nose.

Well, anyway, enough cross-referencing, back to the star of the story, "Young Hearts"!
Here, however, I have to agree with the jury and join in the adulation!

Miguel Matos so far best fragrance point!
Why?
Because he has not only succeeded in breathing new life into the often declared dead Chypre (others have done so before) but also in making the Chypre interesting again for a young generation, without however completely offending the old lover of this genre!
A balancing act that was successful without losing oneself in irrelevance.

The scent is too bulky for that, has too many edges and corners... but on the other hand it shows a hint of "coolness" (which can even be taken literally), as galbanum, pine, saffron, fir balm and birch leaf create a deep dark, ethereal and cooling aura!
Jasmine gives light floral speckles, which loosen up the fragrance a bit, just enough not to make everything sink into total darkness.

Next on the scene is the rose, which knows exactly where its place is and submissively blends in with the tangy green. It appears as dark red as I have rarely smelled and gives the fragrance even more depth, but also something vulnerable.

The patchouli, oakmoss and musk trio, gives lovers of classic chypre fragrances what they crave and start purring with pleasure:
Animalics
Not bad, not fecal and not assaulting...just enough to enjoy and to want to know more about where this d(h)hereditary smell comes from!

The base of patchouli, oakmoss and musk lasts (a restrained rose is also very easy to perceive) almost 24 hours on the skin and lets you sniff again and again at the sprayed area.
The fragrance has an excellent silage and an extreme durability (and this already at "only" the tested perfume concentration, the Extrait version might be even more substantial)

Over 6 hours I was accompanied by a dark, green, bitter, floral scent of forest with a pleasant coolness and then slowly ending in a very long chypre base!

It should be said quite clearly that also younger noses should sniff here please, in order not to miss a great fragrance, which expands the scent horizon beside the usual Parfums de Marly and consorts!

The name "Young Hearts" was not chosen in vain.
For young and old, who have remained young at heart, a true celebration!