Conversation with Andy Tauer at Pitti Immagine Fragranze
October 1, 2011
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By Marika Vecchiattini, Italian Correspondent
Co-Founder, creator and artist of A Dozen Roses, Sandy Cataldo, signing bottles
“Tauer is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you get” -Marika
During Pitti Immagine Fragranze I could once again meet up with Andy Tauer; the outstanding independent perfumer from Switzerland. He was there to present his new trio of fragrances, named “Pentachords”: White, Auburn and Verdant, three creations made of five notes each (Penta is the Greek word for five), and all synthetic. No flowers, no resins, no vetiver: a completely new approach from what he had been doing in these years. Aldehydes and woody musk’s take the stage in all three compositions with interesting effects of light and texture, but they offer completely different experiences:
White is soft and comfortable, Auburn is warmer and caressing, Verdant is intensely woody-green.
How did you compose them? And above all… why?
“Of course I hope people will like them, but if I were into success or making money, I'd rather make flankers, like “L'Air du Desert Marocain Sport” or “Lonely Star Eau Fraiche”, he says with a good laugh, adding, “I simply felt the need to cross my personal boundaries and create something completely new, exploring new directions”.
But Andy has already taken a further step ahead in his personal quest for his new self, and in fact he has told me something about his newest project, the Tableau Fragrances series, which will be available in autumn in the US and later on in Europe.
His new adventure started at EvelynAvenue.com, a sort of virtual neighborhood where people meet, chat about film, art, craft, and do interesting things together. Among these, there's “Woman's Picture”, a series of movies portraying specific women characters, exploring how they live their realities, memories, their perfumes reflecting their characters and moods, and bearing special meanings for each of them. Perfume has the starring role in every story.
“I've worked with filmmaker Brian Pera creating a specific perfume for each specific female character. What do you think of my first, named Miriam?” he says, handing me a tiny vial of the fragrance, an aldehydic floral of great refinement reminiscent of Chanel's N.22 and Guerlain's Liu.
“Yes, the inspirations for the entire movie series, was the classic women's films of the thirties and forties, and this had to be traced also in the perfumes they love”.
Just to resume: outstanding natural raw materials yesterday, unconventional experimentation with molecules today, a stylish revisit of the great classics tomorrow:
“Because every new project, every formula, at the beginning is just like is a blank sheet of paper for me: completely new and requiring a fresh approach”. -Andy Tauer
Tauer is, indeed, a fragrant chocolate box.
Second image of Andy Tauer by Susan Stone, Zurich for DW-World
Bottle image by Marika Vecchiattini
“In recent years I've been growing a lot and I started feeling boring at the idea of repeating my usual paths. I choose the challenge, to see if I could create interesting fragrances with only a restricted number of molecules. I felt I was ready to expose myself, with a completely different approach”. Perfumes you created so far pair synthetic notes and gorgeous natural raw materials of excellent quality, aren't you afraid of creating something so unconventional, far away from what people expect from you?