This next installment of my publications series is highlighting the magazine Metronome. Metronome was originally founded and started issues in January of 1885, ultimately running through December of 1961, making it just shy of 77 years old!

While it initially focused more on classical music, come the early 1920s they began shifting to big band/swing and early Jazz, covering the emergence of bebop. For me, most of the best issues of this magazine were from the 1950s until it’s demise. Ultimately, I think the magazine struggled with focus a bit, sometimes shifting into other popular music of the time instead of leaning in to a specific genre — the Jazz Today experiment that only ran for 13 issues was an attempt to dive more into Jazz editorial work, but it didn’t quite get the adoption rates needed to keep it viable.

I do not have a complete set of these (they tend to be a bit tough to track down and fairly expensive) but I have about 60 issues overall, mostly spanning the 1950s and 60s. I selected a spread of covers to highlight that also show quite a few different cover layouts and fonts (including the brief name change to Music USA around the time when Jazz Today was in production.

Like the last post, I will also highlight advertisements and photography that stuck out to me when flipping through the issues.

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Covers

Click each photo to view full size.

Photography

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Advertisements/Graphical Elements/Typography

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Bonus: Jazz From Japan article!

Here’s a fun article with early reporting on the Jazz movement in Japan. Please keep in mind with all of these articles that there is language used in them that is ‘of the time’ and not exactly culturally sensitive in 2025, to put it kindly, but from a historical/archival perspective it’s interesting to read!

Click each to enlarge to view full size to read.

I hope you enjoyed this look inside Metronome! Do you own any issues of this magazine? If so, what is your favorite? Do any of these covers/images surprise you?

One of my favorite images I found in these issues is one of Sarah Vaughan, Clifford Brown, and the rest of the band recording Sarah’s legendary EmArcy self-titled release — one that was her own favorite recording and has been inducted into the Grammy hall of fame! What a wonderful peek into the studio for such a pivotal recording!

As a Jazz collector, my interest has never been purely limited to collecting LPs, often extending to various books, publications, photography, and more. While cataloguing my various magazine issues, I was reminded of the wonderful photography, design, and articles that have been largely unseen for decades and made the decision to start a series of posts that will feature some of the periodicals in my collection, starting with the magazine ‘Jazz Today.’

Jazz Today was founded by Metronome’s (another magazine) publishers Ned and John W. Bitner to be a magazine purely focused on Jazz editorial content during a time when Metronome was branching out and including other genres in their magazine. Bill Coss — the editor of Metronome — also filled the same role for this unfortunately short-lived publication, with only 13 issues spanning from October 1956 through November 1957. I chose Jazz Today as the first feature since I have a full set.

Since this magazine was so short-lived, I will share all 13 covers, along with some highlights from inside pages, including advertisements, typography, art, photos, and maybe an article or two.

Please note: This post is not intended to violate copyright and is purely for educational and archival purposes.

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Covers

Click to view each full size!

Photography

Fun photos of various musicians! Click to view each full size.

Advertisements/Graphical Elements/Typography

Click to view each full size.

Bonus: Hi-Fi Article!

One of the sections in each issue was dedicated to providing general information on how to build a home hi-fi system, often focusing on a specific piece of gear — turntables, amplifiers, speakers, etc. This section also covered topics such as the rapid takeover of stereo recordings vs mono, looks at the home hi-fi system of Jazz artists, and more.

I hope you enjoyed taking a look through this wonderful little magazine! I do own a fair amount of issues (thought not complete sets) from Metronome, Downbeat, Jazz Journal, Jazz Magazine (Fr), Jazz Hot (fr), and Coda. In future editions, I’ll focus on one at a time similar to this!

Which is your favorite cover? Any surprising photos or scans I added here? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

It’s been way too long since I’ve done a feature on some Japanese jazz albums, so I wanted to circle back and share three that have been on rotation recently. Moving forward, I think I will shift to these being more of a ‘what I am listening to lately’ versus trying to ensure I never repeat an album, since it’s getting a little hard to keep track, so forgive me if you ever see something pop up again!

That being said, I’m fairly certain I haven’t featured any of these just yet, so I hope you all enjoy them!

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George Otsuka 5 - Go On’ (1972)

On this early post-bop release from TBM (#13), George on drums leads this group through a set that is so nearly ‘perfect’ that I’d stick it in any top-10 finest JJazz albums recorded.

The opening track — Go On — is the first of three original compositions by various band members and has lively pacing out of the gate. This calms down a bit on ‘Castaly’ before ramping up into a frenzy on ‘Space Drive.’ At this point the set shifts to covers with a beautifully delicate cover of ‘Here’s that Rainy Day’ and an almost frantic cover of Joe Henderson’s ‘Isotope.’

This is an album where after it’s done you may find yourself reaching for a cigarette a la George on the cover…

While the album is on youtube, it’s clearly a recording from a record, so if you are able to track this one down on vinyl or CD I’d urge you to do so!

Hidefumi Toki - City (1978)

Opening an album with a version of ‘Speak Low’ is a perfect way to get my attention as it’s my 2nd favorite standard (after Misty). On ‘City-Toki,’ Hidefumi is supported by some unexpected band members — The Super Jazz Trio, with Joe Chambers, Tommy Flanagan, and Reggie Workman. The result is a relatively unknown sleeper release that knocked my socks off the first time I listened.

While I enjoy Hidefumi’s spirited playing, his ballad playing is just gorgeous. The cover of ‘I love you, Porgy’ right in the middle of the album is the perfect little bit of a break.

Hideo Shiraki - Self-Titled (1959)

It’s only natural the self-titled release from drummer Hideo Shiraki would open with a version of ‘I Got Rhythm.’ This quick little intro jaunt sets up the rest of the album, featuring wonderful hard-bop standards and a handful of cheeky drum-titled tracks.

It’s an enjoyable album from start to finish, especially for those who love the drums. It is also among the first wave of Jazz recordings coming out of King Records in the late 1950s, only a few years in.

Which of these albums have you heard before? Let me know below! If none, which one of these three did you enjoy the most?

It’s been a while! Between a chaotic period of work and various other Life Events, I haven’t had much time to put together any posts for Substack. While this won’t be a long post, I wanted to share an album that has been on almost non-stop repeat since it released and is one of my favorite finds this year: Daybreak from Sven Wunder.

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Review

Sven’s fifth full-length release, ‘Daybreak’ is themed around an expedition at sea (which is reflected in song titles such as ‘Misty Shore’ and ‘Still Moorings’). The album is a difficult-to-classify mix of Jazz, funk, and soul with flavors of cinematic orchestral scoring, various global influences, and more.

The album starts with ‘Setting off,’ a wistful, dreamy, and slow depart from port in the early morning. ‘Daybreak’ manages to capture the feeling of watching the sunrise beautifully, with the first burst of light over the horizon at 00:35 illustrated with a cymbal crash and swelling strings. ‘Leeward’ is a gorgeous, layered, cinematic and pulsing track (best on headphones or a nice stereo) that leads into ‘Windward,’ repeating the same melodic motif as the track before but with a driving rhythm section and elevated tempo that makes me envision the wind picking up and pushing on the sails of a ship.

Later in the album, ‘Deep Sea’ captures the jarring, mysterious nature of the deep open sea - like a soundtrack to thalassophobia - before shifting into ‘Turning Tides’ with a more hopeful and lush tone. The album’s closer ‘Liquid Mountains’ starts with a great driving beat before cinematic strings and keyboard swoop in, building in layers and intensity up until the end, like the soundtrack to a credits roll as you see the ship sail off to meet the setting sun.

Listen to the full album below (and please support the artist by purchasing if you can)! The album is also on most, if not all, streaming services and YouTube, so check it out there as well!

For My Subscribers

Have you listened to ‘Daybreak’ yet yourself? Feel free to share your thoughts! What other recent album releases have you had on repeat lately? What drew you to them and kept you hooked?

The next stop in my journey through sampling smaller indie brands in 2025 is Boka Fragrance. This project, which received its name from the affectionate childhood nickname (Boka) of the founder, Boris Zrnic, focuses on using fine oils and essences in the crafting of their fragrances, focusing on conjuring emotional responses and incorporating Boris’ Serbian heritage.

Boka has just two fragrances — Zelen and Suze — which both struck me as incredibly well-crafted and quite beautiful, as well as focused on capturing natural scents. Boris spent much of his childhood in nature, so it was important for him to incorporate this into his fragrances.

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Branding and Packaging

From the fairly straight forward website to the well-designed packaging, Boris put together a total brand experience that feels elevated and luxe. The samples are individually boxed 2ml spray samples (with lids!) and all of the paper products are quite beautiful — though, I am a little bit biased since earth tones are my favorite.

While I do not own any of the bottles (yet!) they are really nice frosted glass with unique marble lids crafted in Mexico by hand to give a special touch that makes every bottle a bit different. Custom lids are a great way for small batch fragrance brands to add a unique touch that will make their bottles stand out without needing to place massive custom bottle orders with enormous minimum order quantities. I’ve seen quite a few iterations of this idea now and Boka is among the best for my taste.

Zelen

The first fragrance that caught my eye from Boka was Zelen, which means ‘green’ in Serbian. The name is fitting as it is a fragrance wholly crafted around celebrating vetiver, which Boris succeeds with as, to me, this is one of the finest vetiver fragrances I’ve put my nose on.

Opening with a burst of citrus notes such as Yuzu, Mexican lime, and bergamot, I also got a pretty hefty dose of peppercorn initially, which almost tricks my nose into smelling something like a bitter citrus rind. Short of the very first burst of the opening, the vetiver is ever-present but never overwhelming (to me, something like Encre Noir is quite overwhelming). Some softer woody notes like cedar and sandalwood round out the base here. It’s very green but bright and soft instead of dense and heavy.

With wear, I get a solid 8+ hours on skin, with a persistent scent on clothes or a test strip for over 24 hours. While this is quite long lasting, it sits fairly close to skin for much of its life, which is perfect.

This is vetiver buttoned-up. Imagine a business exec wearing this in a linen shirt and pants on a vacation by the sea. It’s elegant and refined, but not too formal. Casual enough to wear to a tennis match, but elevated enough to transition to a fancy brunch right after. Its endless versatility had me struggling to imagine scenarios where it would not be a good option. It really is that good.

Suze

I’ll admit, the first time I smelled Suze — which means ‘tears’ in Serbian — I didn’t really know what to make of it. However, after revisiting it a few times, I’ve really grown to love it. The concept around this fragrance focuses on recognizing all of the catalysts for tears, both celebratory and reflective, and after spending time with this it definitely conjures up feelings in both of those camps.

The fragrance opens with a burst of citrus black tea with a hefty dose of spearmint that adds a bit of unexpected freshness. As the tea fades to the background, it leaves a bit of a wistful aura behind, like the scent of someone on your clothes breifly after a hug. Various florals then push through, including jasmine, magnolia, and lily of the valley. This floral accord made me imagine a bouquet placed over a casket at a funeral or one handed to a ballerina after her final performance or even one held at a wedding. Flowers are often planted (pun sort of intended) in important moments in our lives that tend to accent and emphasize love, community, and rememberance. A bit of drier cassia and orris help transition to the base notes, which are more resinous and woody, bringing to mind more solemn occasions.

Suze took me on a journey and does every time I spray it on. It somehow captures the bittersweet joy of seeing a friend after a long absense, the celebratory nature of something like a wedding or graduation, and a more reflective, reverent tone as it shifts to dry down. It’s complex and quite a delight!

Closing Notes

Boris has put together two wonderful fragrances as his first releases, along with carefully designed packaging, branding, and overall experience. I’m quite impressed with both of these releases and would love to own both!

While some may scoff at the pricing on these — they are definitely on the premium side of the market — looking at the ‘whole package’ of this luxury product it’s pretty clear why. I personally find them well worth their asking and would much rather spend this kind of money with a small indie creator versus a conglomerate.

If you have not already, Boka offers a 2ml sample pack with both fragrances at an approachable price point, so I’d recommend giving them a try for yourself!

Disclosure: This post is not sponsored and solely reflect my thoughts and feelings on the samples I purchased with my own money.

July was a bit of a crazy month, but now that I’ve cleared the other side, it’s time to do a monthly fragrance roundup! This month was a little bit skewed since I was traveling for a week for a wedding (see my earlier posts re: Seattle), so I wore a decent amount of travel sprays.

Florals still ruled the month with more than 1/3 of my wears for the month falling into this category. Moving into August, I do see this continuing through this month before we move into Autumn here. When I first made the graphic above, my upcoming to-buys were mostly things that were at the top of my mind, but thinking more deeply about this, it may be time to shift into more fall/winter things on my list to pick up at this point.

I did pick up a few things in July bottle-wise (mostly because I had a very fruitful month selling off some declutters on Mercari). These included Samharam from Arte Profumi, Claridad en Silencio from Lula Curioca, Heliodose from Marlou, Ambre Liquide from Astier de Villatte, and Olympic Amber and Woodcut from Olympic Orchids. I was also gifted two travel sizes from Inverso Profumi — Incantesimo and Cimmerian. This sounds like a lot (because it is) but with these I basically broke even from what I sold.

I’m currently pulling a couple more things out to possibly declutter, including a nearly full bottle of Terroni and 2/3 full bottle of Amouage Jubilation XXV, but we’ll see.

Since many of these are repeats from last month, I will copy over descriptions from my previous post where applicable with any additional notes I might want to add. Wears beyond the first won’t be annotated (except for one exception).

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July 1: Jasmin Antique - Rogue Perfumery (Sample):

Of course being a fan of Rogue, I had to give Mr. Cross’ jasmine fragrance a try. I very much enjoy this, and the inclusion of a bit of spiciness gives this a bit of an edge that Jaz (below) does not have. However, in this iteration I do miss the intensity of the jasmine notes in Jaz. I wish I could transfer a bit of this spiciness to Jaz (I tried layering and it did not really work). This probably is not a full bottle buy simply because I own Jaz, but if Jaz is too intense for you (or too expensive), this is a wonderful alternative at a fantastic price point.

July 2: Delfino - Pineward (Bottle):

This is probably my favorite ‘summer’ release from Pineward (which is about to be discontinued until next year, so buy if you are interested!). From my Parfumo review: You are sitting outside your cabin in the woods and just ate a fresh clementine, a light fresh burst of citrus still on your fingers. You stand up to pluck a few tomatoes from the small container garden that have ripened, (to use with dinner), but stop mid-way through to see if the rustling in the pine trees was a deer or just the wind.

July 3: Woodcut - Olympic Orchids (Sample):

Resinous sawdust — sap sweet and warm in the air from the friction of cutting. This is very clearly ‘hitting the brief’ but the bit of caramel sweetness really keeps this from getting too dry and workshoppy and instead takes it in a bit more wearable direction. This may be my favorite from the house, but there are a few top contenders! Dr. Covey has a really interesting olfactory POV. Definitely sample the house if you are able!

July 4: Jaz - Jazmin Sarai (Bottle):

A super concentrated and reference-grade jasmine fragrance. Where it lacks in complexity it makes up for it in power and clarity. It’s sticky and in hot, humid weather, it can create a huge, intoxicating scent bubble. The jasmine leans slightly more to the freshly bloomed, greener side of jasmine and lacks a bit of the spicier riper late-bloom hints that I love, but I’ve found that to be difficult to replicate perfectly. Currently, my reference jasmine fragrance. Expensive, but a little goes a LONG way.

July 5: Relique d'Amour - Oriza L. Legrand (Bottle):

Lily forward incense that is intensely ‘cold.’ Spraying this feels like air conditioning in the intense heat of the summer. I adore this despite needing to reply every 2-3 hours or so. If you enjoy the incense category (or florals, honestly), I really recommend giving this a sniff.

July 6: Invasion Barbare - Parfums MDCI (Sample):

A contemporary twist on the fougere profile by perfumer Stéphanie Bakouche that leans a bit spicier. While a bit on the lighter side and quite expensive, this really is a wonderful take on a classic masculine barbershop profile. Right now, I am struggling between this one or Bespoke from Nose of Gatsby!

July 7: Claridad en silencio - Lula Curioca (Bottle):

This captures the scent of fresh, green, humid dew like nothing else I’ve tried. Copied from my Parfumo review: Robin calls wake you just before dawn, the bedroom window left ajar overnight. Sheer curtains dance in the lightly humid morning breeze, the faint scent of the garden lingering in suspension. You pull yourself out of bed to watch the sunrise, barely making it to the window before a golden sliver emerges above the horizon. The morning light transforms your garden into a sparkling dew-jeweled wonderland. Even the robins pause for a moment, as if in awe of the beauty of a new day.

July 8: Contre Pouvoir - Brecourt (Bottle):

Spicy, licorice and cardamom forward fragrance that feels a bit old school in a way. The drydown is a pretty strong vetiver with some leather/woody notes. The scent profile, to me, smells much older than a 2011 release. This makes me think of an older gentleman, well put together, maybe going to the opera. It’s buttoned up but in an almost austere way to me, versus something more opulent and celebratory like an Amouage offering or something. Apparently Anne Clark (St. Vincent) wore this at some point, though having difficulty verifying.

July 9: Baraonda - Nasomatto (Bottle):

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Baraonda. Opening with a blast of whiskey, this quickly dries down on me to a boozy base under a fairly strong and beautiful rose. It’s a boozy night in a quiet cocktail lounge with a lady friend. HOWEVER, this is quite loud and it lasts for. ever. FOREVER. It takes multiple washings to get it out of any clothes it gets on. This is the same difficulty I have with Terroni (by the same perfumer). They smell lovely but way overstay their welcome. 6-8 hours is about my limit where I want a rest or to change directions and Nasomatto/Orto Parisi laugh in the face of that paltry limit and raise you 24++ hours. Maybe some time ago I would have loved smelling strongly all day long with just 2 sprays, but those days have gone.

July 10: Trimerous - Jorum Studio (Sample):

Iris and Orris are notes that I don’t really typically enjoy much, however Trimerous challenges this general ‘rule’ by offering a spicy orris-focused fragrance that captures the ‘essense of root’ just enough to snap this natural note into focus. This feels like pulling an orris root out of dry soil — spicy but visceral. My biggest complaint is that this is mostly gone off my skin in 2 hours or so.

July 11: Immortelle 43 | 17 - Carta (Bottle):

A spicy, herbal, warm immortelle that opens with a slightly bitter orange peel and spices. Orris and ambergris are here, supporting the radiant immortelle. As it dries down even further, some sweetness from the honey emerges but never to a cloying degree. To me, this smells like the color yellow — fitting given both immortelle flowers and the fragrance oil are both yellow as well. Enthralled with this. While only 15ml and fairly expensive for that little bit of liquid, this extrait comes in a glass splash style bottle with globe glass stopper for application. Very small amounts applied to pulse points are enough to last 6-8 hours on skin, so the 15ml bottle will likely last a very long time!

July 12: Faunus - LaCurie (Bottle):

From my Parfumo review: Stepping into an old cedar barn, well-worn and dry to the point of falling apart. There's still old dried hay laying around, showing signs of housing animals - maybe horses - at some point in the past, yet sunlight and a light breeze blow through the openings in the walls. The light touch of oud with the cedar makes this woody accord come off very dry and aromatic, and the hay and bergamot help breathe a little air around these heavier wood notes. Airy, austere, and bone dry. Lovely!

July 13: Claridad en silencio - Lula Curioca (Bottle): 2nd wear

July 14: Narcisse Taiji - Atelier Materi (Bottle):

This was one of the first floral fragrances I added to my collection a while back and still remains one of my favorites. This spicy floral opens with a blast of pear accord with a smidge of tuberose, drying down to a gorgeous narcissus with ginger, hay, bran and musk. There are notes of patchouli and leather here, but I don’t really get much of them at all, personally. This is one of the most unisex florals I’ve ever come across and smells good on pretty much everyone. Can be found from discounters occasionally for ~40% off retail, which is a great value for 100ml. This also lasts all day on me (8-10 hours).

July 15: Relique d'Amour - Oriza L. Legrand (Bottle): 2nd wear

July 16: Tesoro - DSOL MMXVI (Bottle):

A wonderful creamy citrus/suede. Copied from my Parfumo review: Attending a late-spring evening outdoor party overlooking the Mediterranean on the island of Mallorca (which inspired this and other fragrances from this house), there's a faint scent of oranges riding the breeze from the Sóller valley. You spot a good friend across the way and approach. Leaning in for a long embrace, you're met with the smell of creamy suede -- their jacket from one of the nearby leather-workers in Inca.

July 17: Incantesimo - Inverso Profumi (Travel):

An incredibly well-blended, balanced, and smooth lavender fragrance. I normally find lavender a bit too overpowering in fragrances to wear unless it is a very minor blended ingredient and tend to prefer it for things like fabric sprays and such, but this really impressed me. After the aromatic opening, it dries down into a beautiful warm amber/vanilla/tonka base. Quite special and one of my favorites from the brand.

July 18: Champs Lunaires - Rogue Perfumery (Bottle):

Rogue has quickly become a recent favorite house, with perfumer Manuel Cross exploring ‘traditional’ formulas with his own creative spin. While I enjoy quite a few from the house (Jasmin Antique, Bon Monsieur, Bonded, Flos Mortis, etc), Champs Lunaires has emerged as a favorite. It’s a soft tuberose, accented by creamy sandalwood and the slightest dose of coconut milk (it’s hardly there, but is detectable, and enhances the tuberose nicely). It has great longevity for me as well. A steal at $85/30ml.

July 19: Samharam - Arte Profumi (Bottle):

Almost painfully simple, but executed so nicely. Copied from my Parfumo review: Straddling the line between incense and amber, this time-traveling triumph revisits the Wise Men’s gifts of frankincense, myrrh, and the (liquid) gold of benzoin, seemingly unlocking genetic memories of ancient trade ports, spice routes, and worship through the ages. This is no soaring, contemporary take on ‘churchy’ incense, but a raw, resinous reversion back to basics; a universal common ancestor of modern incense and ambers. Divine, in more than one sense of the word.

July 20: Encens Suave Extrait - Matiere Premiere (Bottle):

Years ago (2019), I tried the EDP Encens Suave when it was released. At the time, I enjoyed it but it lacked a certain bit of extra dimension that would make it stand out amongst a crowd of 'churchy incense-like' fragrances in the category. So, when I noticed the release of the new extrait edition, I wasn't anticipating it to be much different. As a long-time collector of both incense and amber fragrances, there are very few that give me pause on first sniff. The extrait edition is one of them. Instead of the airy nature of the EDP, the extrait is deep, rich, dense, and powerful. If the EDP is incense burning in an empty church, the extrait is a full house -- the warmth of bodies and humidity of breath filling the space, suspending the incense into a dense cloud in the room, a light sweetness from sweat in the air. There is a degree of sexiness to the extrait that just isn't present in the EDP at all. It's Andrew Scott in Fleabag when he leans in close, clothes smelling of incense and the coffee he brewed earlier in the morning.

Travel Week - Seattle

July 21: Cimmerian - Inverso Profumi (Travel):

The blast of cedar, rum, plum, and spices in the opening of this one is delicious! While the base is full of fairly heavier notes (vanilla, amber, oud, leather), other notes like violet, patchouli, and vetiver help to cut through these traditionally dense notes leaving a warm scent that never gets stuffy.

July 22: Narcisse Taiji - Atelier Materi (Travel): 2nd wear

July 23: Aura - Nose of Gatsby (Travel):

Can read more about Gatsby and what I picked up in my Seattle recap. This one hooked me immedaitely. It’s a soft woody scent with a focus on Guaiacwood. In the opening, there are definitely similarities with Gaiac 10 from Le Labo, but Aura ends up considerably more complex and with much better performance overall. Fans of soft, musky, woody scents will love this. Winner of the Best Woody fragrance in 2024 at the Golden Pineapple awards.

July 24: Incantesimo - Inverso Profumi (Travel): 2nd wear

July 25: Narcisse Taiji - Atelier Materi (Travel): 3rd wear. This was the scent I picked to wear to the wedding after MUCH debate. Originally, I planned on wearing Zoologist Squid as the wedding was on a boat, but it felt a bit intense for a mid-summer outdoor wedding.

July 26: Aura - Nose of Gatsby (Travel): 2nd wear

July 27: Heliodose - Marlou (Bottle):

A intoxicating, heady, dense, indolic Tiare fragrance. One of my favorites from this fascinating house. Copied from my Parfumo review: Robin, drawn into Poison Ivy’s lair — humid, dewy, musky, and green — quickly reaches the inner sanctum, where her flower-throne bursts open with the intoxicating scent of rich, indolic tiare flowers. Seduced, Robin finds himself tricked into a poison kiss...With a scent like this, I’d have likely met the same fate.

July 28: L'homme Sage - Divine (Bottle):

Made in part by perfumer Yann Vasnier (the nose behind things like Mortel/Mortel Noir, Incarnate, The Architects Club, Plum Japonais, etc.), L’homme sage is a beautifully understated chypre that hides a ton of complexity in a creamy-smooth package. Normally, saffron is a turn-off and dealbreaker note for me, but it’s blended so well here. An underrated sleeper!

July 29: Bespoke - Nose of Gatsby (Sample):

This may be my all-around winner from the house outside of Aura as it is incredible versatile. This is Gatsby’s twist on the fougere style, with bergamot and lavender being front and center with a nice sandalwood in the base. Inspired by bespoke tailor shops, steamed and pressed clothes, and clean linens. If all of my clothing and bedding smelled of this, I would be overjoyed. One of the best lavender fragrances I’ve smelled as I often find they lean a little too soapy. This is just gorgeous and any time I have worn the sample I’ve had a hard time not smelling myself. It’s on my to-buy list for a full bottle at some point, which will likely be sooner rather than later given the sample is already almost gone.

July 30: Martyr - Profundum (Sample):

The first release from Polish fragrance house Profundum, Martyr captures a pine wood fire in such a unique, mystical way. There is a bit of a metallic/blood tinge that is possibly patchouli that makes me think of someone cutting their finger with a ritual knife and dripping blood into the fire. There’s a bit of leather in there as well, but the sappy piney smoke is delightful. Really crazy bottle as well. I will admit, I fell in love with this rather quickly and ended up buying a bottle. I see this being a winter grab.

July 31: Tobacco Toscano - Santa Maria Novella (Sample):

I’ve gone through a few samples of this and every time I wear it I wonder why I haven’t yet bought a full bottle. To me, it’s main strength may also be the reason I haven’t: it’s an easy, thoughtless reach when I don’t feel like making a decision. It works for all times of year, is cozy, not too loud, works in any setting, and is overally usually pretty universally enjoyed. The problem for me comes with the fact that this can end up leaning a bit too generic for me to justify buying. For someone with only a handful of fragrancess, this is a perfect everyday option. I still may end up picking up a bottle — maybe a used partial — as I don’t have any tobacco fragrances (not usually a note I go for). Time will tell!

That’s a wrap for July! Quite the list, though not drastically different from last month. Writing this up, I did wonder if this would be better to do quarterly (or seasonally) as a three-month summary vs monthly, with more generalized highlights. I think I will have to see how much redundancy pops up from month to month.

As a side note, I was revisiting my bottle of Helmut Lang’s Cuiron the other day and lamenting the fact that this suede masterpiece has been discontinued again for some time. To me, this fragrance is a casualty of poor timing, just missing the current explosion in the fragrance sector. I’m pretty convinced that re-released today and marketed well, this would do quite well. With 50ml bottles of the original regularly sell for $900-1500/bottle, I am cherishing the last few ml in this bottle for as long as I possibly can.

What was your favorite fragrance(s) you wore in July? Do you own any discontinued fragrances that you wish would return?

While Seattle doesn’t have a big specialty niche fragrance shop a la Ministry of Scent, ZGO, the Marie Marie, Scent Bar, Stele, Scent Room, etc., there are a few notable things to check out there if you are in the area.

Originally, I planned on visiting Filigree & Shadow, but after learning they are selling through their inventory and moving to Belgium to rebuild from the ground up with new formulas, I decided it was best I not fall in love with things on their way out for good and decided to skip. Sometimes it’s really just bad timing!

However, I was able to pick up a few things in other places, so will go over them here along with some general thoughts.

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Fischersund at the National Nordic Museum

Last year through early 2025, Fischersund collaborated with the National Nordic Museum to create an exhibition called ‘Faux Flora,’ a multisensory experience designed around an invented species, including recorded music from Jonsi, beautiful visuals, and a series of conceptual fragrances made that illustrate various stages of the lifecycle of a plant. While I did not get to see that exhibition while it was ongoing, the museum as a whole was quite interesting (though on the smaller side).

Their gift shop features an entire shelf dedicated to Fischersund and is only a handful of physical locations in the country where their fragrances can be found in person. Everything from their fragrances, to bandanas, to incense, candles, soap, samples, and more. I currently own No. 101, and there are a few others I am interested in as well.

If you’d like to support the museum by purchasing Fischersund items from them, click here. Otherwise, you can find these items on Fischersund’s official website.

My mission here was to grab one of the Faux Flora sets, which included 5x 8ml scents that were designed for the exhibition. The entire concept of this was quite interesting to me, so I’ve shared the summary of the project below:

Faux Flora: A scent journey in five parts

Fischersund Perfumery and Art Collective unveils five new efflorescent fragrances called Faux Flora. Enter a world of conceptualized botany that explores the intersection of what is natural versus synthetic.

Faux Flora is a sensorial display of a plant’s life cycle displayed through human milestones. The plant life cycle—germination, growth, flowering, seed formation, and seed dispersal—is thus superimposed on the life cycle of a human—birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and death. Faux Flora springs from universal experiences, creating mythical flowers that are otherworldly yet familiar.

I’m a sucker for high concept perfumery, so this is a set I’ve been very curious about for some time and picked one up here. The presentation of the box is quite beautiful, with a nicely designed slip over the box, featuring imagery from the exhibition. Removing the slip, the black box is embossed with the exhibition logo and opens to reveal beautiful laminated cards with exhibition images on one side and the name/concept of each fragrance as well as a poem in both Icelandic and English.

The fragrances are all quite interesting, for the most part capturing scents of nonexistant flowers, while also capturing a mood that fits in with the overall theme.

Faux Flora No. 1 - This fragrance is supposed to represent germination or birth. The first leaf. A first breath. The scent profile leans creamy, milky, powdery white floral with a synthetic edge. For the most part, I do see the vision here, but it takes little time for the synthetics to make me noseblind. To me, it makes me think of a sort of sterilized hospital mixed with a sort of lactonic woody background that almost smells a little sick.

Faux Flora No. 2 - This fragrance is supposed to represent growth and childhood. It is delightfully odd with a mix of green (tomato leaf, petitgrain, bell pepper, vetiver), sweet/citrusy (lemon peel, raspberry, licorice), along with cedar, musk, and lavender. I probably would not wear this, but I really enjoy smelling it. It’s sweet, green, plasticky, and grassy. The smell of sticky melted raspberry ice pops mixed with grass stains and fresh bandaid. Childhood nostalgia bottled. This strange combination comes with a poem that is so on the nose with how it makes me feel that I had to copy it here:

Climb trees brain freeze paint brush sugar rush throw ball free fall hide bed build shed grass stains airplanes flat tire start fire fall out sing loud bruises scratches band-aid patches giving steals training wheels orange peels automobiles running falling landing calling acting dying dancing crying drowning flying breathing shouting laughing

Crowns bloom raised skyward
Songbirds whistle above
Innocent eyes observe
every microscopic flutter

Faux Flora No. 3 - This fragrance is supposed to represent flowering and adolescence. Opening with a blast of fresh pink pepper and bergamot, a synthetic sticky-sweet leather pushes through, with a bit of plastic & lipsticky notes adding a weird edge. The weird chemical sweetness here almost makes gag, yet I find this fascinating. A excerpt from the scent poem helps illustrate what this is going for:

Wearing your favorite dress
Make up lipstick leather shoes
Cigarette smoke sweet perfumes
Tears fall in friends arms
like spilled drinks
Laughing
Shouting
into the night
we go

Faux Flora No. 4 - This fragrance is supposed to represent seed germination and adulthood. This is mainly a nicely blended conifer-heavy amber/incense blend and is probably the least experimental of the set (but also quite wearable). Incense and resins are quite meditative to me, which is fitting for a fragrance that meditates on and confronts a harsh reality of adulthood:

Yesterday evanesces
Today another day
How many days do I get?

Faux Flora No. 5 - Last, but not least, this fragrance is supposed to represent death. This one is quite visceral — replicating the smell of decaying plant matter in damp black soil; burnt ash; fungi, and the cycle of decomposition and rebirth. If I were to have to choose a scent that represents an old crypt, this would be it.

Overall, going through all of these, smelling, reading the scent poems, and reflecting on the conceptual package offered with this set was such a wonderful experience and really highlighted what fragrance can be when treated as an artistic medium in combination with stunning audio-visual productions.

Nose of Gatsby at Pike Place Market

Due to some excellent timing, I had the opportunity to stop by Pike Place Market and visit Gatsby at their guest booth at the market on their final day. I had a wonderful time chatting with Gatsby for some time about their fragrances, history, fragrance in general, etc.

Gatsby is a self-taught perfumer and hobbyist who spent 14 years experimenting with making fragrances prior to the creation of their brand. The result is a solid line that has something for everyone, including multiple award-winning offerings. For more in-depth information about Gatsby, read this interview.

Unfortunately, arriving on the final day I was met with the discovery sets being out of stock. Since it would be a few months before a restock, I instead picked up three travel sprays and a few samples that I’ll recap here. To browse their website, click here.

Travel Trio:

I picked up the travel trio — 3x 10ml travel sprays — with the three that drew me in

Burning Piano - Smelling this on a test strip at the booth, the initial blast of smoked wood is potent, but quite nice. It mellows out with the dry down, with the smoke settling and a light touch of rose and leather coming through. A really nice fall/winter choice, especially for those who enjoy smoky scents a la T-rex, LiTA, etc. This was an Art and Olfaction Awards Honorable Mention in 2024.

Aura - This one hooked me immedaitely. It’s a soft woody scent with a focus on Guaiacwood. In the opening, there are definitely similarities with Gaiac 10 from Le Labo, but Aura ends up considerably more complex and with much better performance overall. Fans of soft, musky, woody scents will love this. Winner of the Best Woody fragrance in 2024 at the Golden Pineapple awards.

Mirage - As a fan of ambers, resins, spices, etc., this seemed like a winner to me. While normally I’m pretty avoidant of saffron when used in perfumery, in this one it is blended quite nicely. There is a burst of almost citrus in the opening from the frankincense, with saffron, plum, and a smooth suede in the heart and a landanum and vetiver base. I’d recommend this to fans of fragrances like L’air du desert Morocain or Ambre Sultan. Winner of Best Special Occasion Fragrance Award 2025 from AskMen.com.

Samples:

Superbloom - A spicy, lemony, floral bouquet of a fragrance featuring Rose, Jasmine, Neroli, Lavender, and Iris. The combination of citrus and rose in the opening is quite interesting and ends up feeling super fresh. As it dries down, it gets easier to pick out the individual floral notes including slightly indolic jasmine and a smooth lavender. For me, this can lean a little bathroom air freshener, however, with the lemon and lavender, especially with the indolic jasmine lending a bit of that ‘funk’ that is present in public restrooms. At the same time, it also smells like a fresh bouquet of flowers on the counter next to a bowl of lemons.

Bespoke - This may be my all-around winner from the house outside of Aura as it is incredible versatile. This is Gatsby’s twist on the fougere style, with bergamot and lavender being front and center with a nice sandalwood in the base. Inspired by bespoke tailor shops, steamed and pressed clothes, and clean linens. If all of my clothing and bedding smelled of this, I would be overjoyed. One of the best lavender fragrances I’ve smelled as I often find they lean a little too soapy. This is just gorgeous and any time I have worn the sample I’ve had a hard time not smelling myself. It’s on my to-buy list for a full bottle at some point, which will likely be sooner rather than later given the sample is already almost gone.

Triple Vanilla - A deep, nutty vanilla that leans a bit dry versus dense and sweet. The hazelnuts and waffle cone almost push this into a holiday yankee candle territory, but the lack of dense sweetness keep it from teetering over the edge. If sprayed cautiously and worn close to skin it can be quite nice. However, this one is very easy to overdo. I am not normally a gourmand person, but I woudn’t mind smelling this on anyone. My favorite vanilla is still Tihota, mostly due to it’s pure, straight vanilla approach, but this is one for lovers of Zoologist Chipmunk and/or Harvest Mouse, or Pineward’s Shire.

Tranquil - Grapefruit, orange blossom, and some green/tea notes make for a fresh, citrusy fragrance that is soft and accessible. This one is nicely blended and smells lovely, but it did come across a bit on the more generic side to me, lacking some of the inventiveness of some other offerings from the house. That being said, if you are a fan of fresh citrus scents but want something slightly more green and a tad more bitter, this is one to check out!

Naive - A soft, creamy, fig and black tea opens here — gorgeous — though this quickly fades a bit for me and a fairly strong rose note comes through, one that is even more prominent and persistent on fabrics. If you like fig, black tea, and rose, definitely give this one a try. It’s not for me though given the strong rose note.

Ultimately, my two favorite picks are probably Bespoke and Aura, with Burning Piano and Mirage rounding out a top 4 — at least from the ones I sampled. I did smell some of their other scents on display, including a few of the other gourmands + the newest to the lineup — Eros — that perfectly replicated that fuzzy peach/apricot smell that I’ve never smelled so accurately reproduced. While it is a bit too fruity/sweet for me, those looking for an accurate peach/apricot scent should absolutely give that a try.

Lastly, just wandering around Pike Place Market, it’s easy to get bombarded with scents from enormous floral booths to roasted nuts to spices and coffees and teas. While overwhelming at times, it is absolutely a ‘tourist trap’ worth spending time in.

I’ll close out with a really beautiful track from Blue Earth Sound, titled ‘Mariposa.’

‘Til next time!

I spent last week in the Seattle area celebrating the wedding of some good friends and stopped in a record shop in Fremont — Jive time Records — since they advertised having a nice selection of Jazz albums. For a small shop, I was pretty surprised at the selection and ended up pulling a few picks from the crates and otherwise that I’d like to share, especially since some are a little bit deeper cuts.

Won’t be getting into a ton of detail on each one since there are six to go through, but it was just too good of a day not to share!

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Bin Finds

The first few I found in the bins were quite cheap and in really nice condition (pretty much NM/EX grade media and VG+/NM sleeves), so they were really easy buys.

Vince Guaraldi - Jazz Impressions

Originally released in 1964, this is the first ‘compilation’ album from Guaraldi, thrown together from only two albums by Fantasy records. While this makes it a bit less desirable to collectors, it’s still a wonderful pickup for $15.00.

Lorez Alexandria with the Ramsey Lewis Trio - Early In the Morning

Recorded and originally released in 1960 on Argo, this is a nice set from this underrated and underappreciated vocalist. A wonderful mix of blues and jazz standards backed by the fabulous Ramsey Lewis trio. If you aren’t familiar with Lorez’s recordings, this album or my personal favorite — ‘Deep Roots’ — are good places to start.

The pressing I found was a Japanese re-issue in fabulous shape!

Fumio Itabashi - Wararase (contemporary We Want Sounds reissue)

A brand new copy of the recent reissue of this 1982 JJazz masterpiece for $20? Yes, please! For some context, original pressings typically run between $200-500! This solo piano album from Fumio Itabashi is quite a masterwork in setting the mood and engaging listeners without the need for a backing band. Recommend giving this whole album a listen.

While the first three tracks are covers and standards, the remainder of the album are original compositions that often lean toward spiritual jazz. Probably the most well-known composition here is ‘Watarase,’ which if you listen to a fair amount of japanese jazz you’ve likely seen covered many times by other musicians.

Other Finds

While I was happy just finding the ones above, when at the checkout I noticed an album on the wall that I had to ask about: Blues to East from the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio!

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio - Blues to East

Released in 1978, this direct cutting version of this release is incredible and sounds superb. Hiroshi Murakami’s work on drums here is fabulous (especially on the opener) and really nicely recorded. This copy is almost as if someone just pulled off the shrink wrap.

I sing the praises of the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto trio enough, so I won’t waste anyone’s time again, but the video below is the entire album!

After chatting with the owner for a bit re: this album and various Three Blind Mice releases, he mentioned he *just* got two in on a trade earlier in the day if I wanted to check them out. Of course I said yes. Finding TBM pressings in the US is quite rare, even online, so I had to at least take a look. Turns out, they ended up being two albums I needed and in wonderful condition.

Kenji Mori Quartet - Firebird

This 1977 Jazz-Funk fusion album is a bit of an oddball from TBM, but quite a lot of fun. From the onset, Kenji’s fiery tenor playing is a joy to listen to, especially alongside the wonderful guitar playing from Kazumi Watanabe. On the second track, Kenji swaps to flute, delivering a nice take on the classic ‘A Time For Us.’ Firebird pt 1 & 2 launches into a sprawling funky jam session. A little bit of a deeper cut, but super solid for a jazz-funk fusion release from this era.

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio - Live at the Misty

Finally, and the gem of the day, this incredible 1974 live recording from the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto trio at the Misty in Tokyo. There really isn’t a whole lot to say about this one besides it being one my favorite live jazz albums — ever. Not just limited to JJazz, either! I was stunned when I got shown an original copy in such good condition. While this one was a little on the pricier side, I needed no convincing.

Give it a listen below!

When all is said and done, this may have been my best in-person record buying experience to date (though, whenever I get myself to Japan I am sure that will change, much to the dismay of my bank account).

What are some recent albums you’ve added to your collection? Let me know in the comments!

One of the original ideas I launched my Substack with was pairing fragrances with music and art as I feel that multi-sensory experiences tend to be quite impactful. This concept has been touched on numerous times in other capacities, with recent examples being the Faux Flora exhibition at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle that ended earlier this year, and one of the indie fragrance darlings of the moment, Zernell Gillie, with his genre-inspired fragrances. Dallas-Fort Worth-based Fine-Tuned Fragrance also explores this concept, making fragrances inspired by music — whether specific songs, sub-genres, or even music venues.

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About

Fine-Tuned Fragrances was founded by Chanley Pike in 2022 and has a total of eight core fragrances as of this writing, all of which have custom Spotify playlists accompanying them. In addition to perfumes, FTF also has candles, room sprays, reed diffusers, four roll-on oils (exclusive scents to this format), as well as an accord layering kit with 16 different accords for a huge amount of experimentation.

Their $38 discovery set comes with all eight core fragrances in 3ml sprays (very generous), and has a $20 off voucher for a full-size (60ml) bottle, which is already a bargain at $64. Travel sprays are available as well, with a 9ml travel spray coming in at only $24.

After reviewing the discovery set and spending some time with the line, I wanted to share my thoughts as I continue to work through smaller indie brands in 2025!

Disclosure: The discovery set was very generously gifted by the brand with no requirement or request for review. This review is of my own volition and is my own personal opinion. Fragrance is subjective, so please sample for yourself if something sparks your interest!

Packaging

The discovery set arrived in a branded black box and nicely padded with bubble wrap and tissue paper. Included was the discovery kit (a metal tin inside of a cardboard box) and a small bag with test strips and individual fragrance notes/info cards.

The cards list the fragrance name, music inspiration, notes, and ‘vibe’ on one side, with the reverse having a Spotify link to a curated playlist (which I strongly recommend listening to for each as you sample). Quick note: to scan the links, open Spotify, click on Search, then click the camera icon in the top right and hover over the link. The playlist will then open.

Scents

After spending some time with these, there’s something for everyone here in this line. While you aren’t going to find anything particularly avant garde or abstract here, that really isn’t the goal of the line. Three stood out as potential buys for me. These are listed in no particular order. I do not ‘rate’ fragrances in reviews since scent is subjective, so these are just my thoughts and feelings.

My Highlights —

Velvet Underground - Fresh and green, this dries down with some earthy, woody warmth — featuring elemi, amber, soil, woods. Never gets too heavy, with the bergamot + pepper adding a bit of fuzzy brightness to it. The notes mention a ‘tea-like’ quality to it, which . On paper this stays pretty bouyant and fresh for a very long time, but it warms up and gets more resinous on skin. Like this a lot!

The Cherry Trip - After throwing back their Old Fashioned, your date pulls the luxardo cherry out of the bottom of the glass and feeds it to you. While the whiskey-soaked cherry is front and center, orange zest and bitters float in the background — especially in the opening. This isn’t a sickly sweet maraschino cherry but a deeper, boozier one. A sexy ode to the nightclub ‘The Trip’ and Old Fashioned cocktails.

Smoke Water - Opens a bit fruity with a hint of jasmine, but rose quickly pushes front and center. This isn’t a heady rose, but a dark, rich one. A bit of leather pokes through but it’s fairly faint (think well-worn leather jacket vs a brand new one). A tiny bit of tobacco lingers as well. Initially, the burst of plum makes this almost a little too sweet — like candied rose — but once the leather comes in during the drydown it smells of what I’d imagine Patti Smith’s leather jacket might smell like. My only wish here is for a little bit more smoke or ash to give it a smidge more grit, but I enjoy it as is as well. Inspired by early metal.

The Rest —

Electric boogie - This opens with burst of blood orange, pepper, some clove — fresh and spicy. After about an hour in the drydown, the suede starts to come through with the orris to give it a softer feel. It’s like taking off a suede jacket you wore out to a club, fragrant from accidental splashes of cocktails, and someone else’s perfume from where they hugged you. Inspired by the funk movement of the 1960s.

Surfin (Sound) Waves - Inspired by surf rock and a day at the beach. Breezy, a dash of citrus and woods with a musky coconut suntan lotion that is accurate without being off-putting. I am not at all a beach person nor do I particularly like the smell of suntan lotion or coconut, but this is really transportive and very wearable. Great if you want to beat the winter woes and imagine your bedroom is the beach. This one is the most ‘fun’ to me of the line, conjuring up images of sunbathing, volleyball, and kids making sandcastles.

Kaleidoscope Eyes - Like falling into a springtime field of wildflowers. The pear accord helps to add some sparkling freshness to the top of this, with sweetgrass, matcha, amber giving a little bit of earthy weight to balance out the florals. Makes me think of those psychedelic 1960s floral prints. Very pretty! Gardenia is a floral I tend to struggle with since it reads a bit too ‘classical feminine,’ which is how I would categorize this fragrance. Inspired by the Beatles song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.’

White Room - Fresh out of a hot shower, you put on some lightly scented lotion and a light sweater. This is a lightly musky, powdery (yet somehow creamy, maybe the sandalwood) vanilla that avoids the sweetened gourmand approach. Inspired by the Cream song of the same name! I think I would like this one as a candle or diffuser.

Ms. Haze - Inspired by the ‘lavender haze’ Hendrix was in when he wrote ‘purple haze,’ this fragrance pulls inspiration from hippie culture, Woodstock, and psychedelics. The cannabis/lavender/patchouli combo can be a bit intense at first, but after letting it dry down for a while they calm down and fade into the blend. Interesting, and probably the ‘wildest’ of the line, though still very approachable.

Final Notes

Chanley did a nice job putting together this lineup of fragrances as well as the total experience with the custom playlists. At the incredible price point of the line, it’s really a no-brainer to recommend checking them out to see if any are for you. While these aren’t daring, avant garde, or definitive, they aren’t meant to be. It’s about having fun with fragrance and music!

Fragrance is the fastest growing beauty segment by a wide margin and seemingly everyone is racing to get a piece of the proverbial pie, with exponential growth in new fragrance releases from established brands to an explosion in new brands launching near constantly — from ‘celebrity’ brands like Tsu Lange Yor to venture-capital backed ones like Borntostandout.

Alongside this segment growth, access and availability of ingredients, supplies, and perfumery knowledge has become much more widespread, especially with companies like Perfumer’s Apprentice who not only supply ingredients but conduct regular classes. Paired with an explosion in popularity on social media (notably TikTok), consumers and hobbyists are faced with a deluge of options and new releases on a near daily basis.

Despite the chaos and pressure for release volume, there are emerging independent brands taking a slower, more intentional approach to craft perfumery that feels a bit more ‘authentic.’ One of these houses is Carta, which I feel offers a masterclass-like look at how to pull off a small indie brand the right way.

Disclaimer: This article represents my own experience and views around this fragrance brand and products. This is not sponsored and all views are my own.

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Carta was founded in 2017 by Heather D’Angelo after being inspired while collecting botanical samples from the Malaysian rainforest as part of her research at Columbia University. While many might recognize Heather from her band Au Revoir Simone, she is also an ecologist and (now) perfumer.

Quoting Carta’s website:

With Carta, D’Angelo explores the artistry of perfume, influenced by her background in musical composition and scientific inquiry. Rooted in her passion for environmental conservation, D’Angelo’s romance with scents is shaped and driven by a commitment to conscious practices and a desire to share the stories behind Carta’s ingredients.

With a brand name meaning map that conveys the idea of ‘linking scent and place’ and just two fragrances — Moena 12|69 (2017) and Immortelle 43|17 (2020) — Heather’s slow, methodical approach to fragrance development focuses heavily on sourcing key ingredients directly in a way that is sustainable. This practice illustrates an alternative route of participating in the greater fragrance market that is much more mindful and sustainable.

Moena 12|69 (2017)

Notes: Wild Peruvian Moena, Soaked Moss, Golden Ginger, Brewed Tea & Tobacco Leaves, Redolent Woods

This opens with a burst of spicy ginger before a slightly camphorous and clovey dry wood comes front and center — likely the Moena — complimented by faint tea and tobacco notes. This is meant to highlight the main ingredient Moena Alcanfor oil, which is steam distilled from the branches and leaves of the Moena tree. This oil is positioned to be a sustainable alternative to the endangered rosewood, with Moena 12|69 being the first fragrance to feature the ingredient. This one is definitely for fans of subtle but gorgeous woods.

To me, this smells like walking thorough a forest in the late summer in the early afternoon, light beams stabbing through the canopy and warming the damp, mossy underbrush. The woods here are dry, yet somehow the fragrance conveys an atmosphere of light humidity. The ‘rawness’ of this almost feels like snapping a branch of a tree and rubbing its sap on your skin. Much like Immortelle, this fragrance seems to be better suited for warmer weather where it really blooms.

Immortelle 43|17 (2020)

Notes: Dalmation Coast Immortelle, Sunbaked Spices, Wildflower Honey, Caramelized Orange Peels, Orris & Ambergris

Essential oils from the helichrysum italicum plant (Immortelle) are sustainably sourced from two small family-owned farms in Bosnia Herzegovina and on the island of Hvar, in Croatia to create this liquid gold masterpiece.

For me, testing this was a revelation. While Moena 12|69 is wonderfully woody and dry, Immortelle 43|17 is intoxicating, rich, and heady. It’s dusk — golden hour — in mid-summer, laughing with friends outside, fireflies lighting up. It’s the warmth of a smile from across the room through a crowd. It’s a long hug from someone you love after a long absence. It’s a hand in the small of your back, or the puff of warm breath in your ear from a whisper. Intimate, yet radiant. The muted warmth, yet brighter vegetal undertones make me think simply of the color yellow. Fitting given Immortelle and the liquid in the bottles are both the same color.

With the heat of the skin, it comes alive as a radiating bloom of warmth.

After a few wears of the sample, I added a bottle of this to my collection, where I see it staying forever. This one is visceral, intoxicating, and really something quite special. My only wish is that I had more of it.

Packaging, Bottles, and More

Part of the luxury of slow releases like these is that in addition to careful ingredient sourcing, Heather has plenty of time to craft thoughtful packaging and messaging/content, delivering on all fronts so each interaction with the brand and their products is something unexpected and thoughtful.

Starting with the beautifully designed website, Heather is quick to recognize her team that helps make the multi-sensory experience all come together, from web designers to packaging designers, which is a wonderful acknowledgement of all partners that help make her vision come to fruition.

The website is a multi-sensory experience, with each fragrance page featuring a short atmospheric video that focuses on celebrating the key ingredients by capturing scenes from the sources and sharing important context. This is bundled with a variety of gorgeous photos and a unique music composition for each fragrance release, my favorite being the one for Immortelle 43|17 (above), which reminds me quite a bit of the music of Hammock. The dedication to honoring the ingredients is also reflected in the names of each fragrance, with the number reflecting the latitude and longitude of the source.

With the packaging, the focus on sustainability and beauty continues to the product line. The samples arrived in half-moon shaped, textured, and beautifully branded ‘boxes’ made from recycled paper that open to reveal a short message of thanks from Heather and then the sample within — in a 1ml glass vial with cork stopper. Everything recyclable and totally free from plastics. Easily the most unique and thoughtful sample packaging I’ve experienced.

If I had to guess, this half-circle sample packaging was specifically designed to mirror the bottle cap of the initial launch edition of Moena, which was limited to just 300 bottles. With a shift to smaller batches and an increased focus on eliminating plastics and making all packaging recyclable/refillable, this bottle design was abandoned for the new smaller glass ones.

For the ‘full sized’ 15 ml bottles, the same textured recycled paper and branding from the samples is resused to create the box which is 100% recycled paper. Within is the glass bottle and stopper complete with a baudruchage. Once the seal is removed, this stopper works perfectly to dab the rich fragrances on. As an incentive to reuse these bottles, Carta offers ‘refills’ at a discount versus a full bottle. These bottles are very high quality and extremely beautiful!

If the overall branding/‘brand mythology’, message of sustainability that is consistent down to the packaging, gorgeous fragrances, and commitment to directly sourcing ingredients wasn’t enough, Carta also shares proceeds with Camino Verde, the only organization in the world distilling Moena Alcanfor, the essential oil featured in Moena 12|69. Additionally, they do quite a bit of work with reforestation of the Amazon.

I can’t wait to see what Heather releases next!

It’s been quite some time since I posted a few Japanese jazz titles here (apparently my last one was in March??), so wanted to release another installment of this series highlighting a few great album picks! Time has flown by this second quarter of the year!

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Kazunori Takeda - Gentle November (1979)

A laid back, sensuous session of ballads from tenor Kazunori Takeda. This album is part of my evening wind-down rotation since it’s such an easy one to turn on and let play start to finish. While it’s difficult to choose ‘favorite tracks’ from ballad albums like this, I tend to prefer the B-side, featuring four original compositions from Takeda. There’s always a certain magic to an artist playing their own songs that just isn’t there with covers.

Kunihiko Sugano - Portrait - The World of Kunihiko Sugano (1974)

On this album, Sugano performs solo on piano, featuring a selection of mostly-classic standards to explore. Sugano’s playing at times reminds me of Tsuyoshi Yamamoto — probably one of the most widely recognized pianists on the Japanese jazz scene. Kunihiko is able to play these in a way that makes them feel complete without the need for a backing band.

Also of note is the recording quality. Audio Lab record did a superb job with the recording and mastering of this album, really capturing the piano perfectly as well as the decay in the room. Played on a nice system, it feels like you’re in the room with him. No specific track recommendations here, so just dive in!

Conosuke Saijo - Manhattan Showcase (1980)

Somehow my picks this time around seem to focus on standards and ballads, but that’s ok! Here’s another album filled with beloved standards played by Conosuke Saijo on tenor sax and the rest of his backing quartet. There is a nice mix here of slower ballads and a little more upbeat tracks that make for a varied listen without going off the rails. One of my favorite moments is near the very end of the album with the conversational tenor and drum solos.

This album was also wonderfully recorded with excellent stereo imaging that is a delight on a good pair of headphones or a nice system, so I definitely recommend giving it a listen that way!

If you are familiar with these albums (or if you are just listening), what are your favorite moments?

I always consider any collection to be a ‘living thing’ in a way, as they are often ever-changing due to evolution in taste and depth of experience. Fragrances are no different! A big portion of my collection has changed in the past few years with frequent decluttering to pay for things that better suit me now.

A fragrance-related administrative change I made this month was to shift completely to using Parfumo to log my collection and engage with reviews, etc. Fragrantica has been problematic (to put it lightly) for some time, and basenotes is a little too sleepy and annoying to navigate (for my taste). Parfumo is not perfect, but it seems to be the best option at the moment. You can check out my profile and follow me here. I will copy in reviews I’ve written for specific fragrances here and there below. Still working on importing my ‘to sample’ list, but it’s going to take a while!

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Summary

June usually marks the beginning of the ‘hot’ season here in Texas that tends to extend through much of October, so my picks have shifted to full-fledged summer wears now. As someone not traditionally a fan of ‘freshies,’ aquatics, heavy citrus, florals, and fruity fragrances, the warm seasons have always been a bit of a struggle for me. However, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the past year trying to expand my nose in this direction and have managed to make some good progress!

More than 1/3 of my wears in June were florals, with 3 of my top 5 most worn falling into this category. My ratio of wearing my FBs vs trying new things is right where I want it (2:1), so I was happy to see that. A few of the samples I wore this month I either purchased bottles of or intend to soon! I also decluttered 4 bottles in June, recycling back into new things that fit my evolved tastes.

June 1: Clue - Warm Bulb + Pineward - White Fir (sample + FB):

The sudden warmth made me long for the winter again, inspiring a thought of maybe combining warm bulb and white fir to give the impression of old school incandescent string lights on a christmas tree. This somewhat worked, but I feel like this would be better suited for a nostalgic room spray or something. It has made me wonder what else could layer with warm bulb, however. Warm bulb + some sort of ‘cake like’ gourmand could be very easy bake oven…

June 2: Divine - L’homme Sage (FB):

Made in part by perfumer Yann Vasnier (the nose behind things like Mortel/Mortel Noir, Incarnate, The Architects Club, Plum Japonais, etc.), L’homme sage is a beautifully understated chypre that hides a ton of complexity in a creamy-smooth package. Normally, saffron is a turn-off and dealbreaker note for me, but it’s blended so well here. An underrated sleeper!

June 3: Serge Lutens - Dans le bleu qui pétille (FB):

Copied from my Parfumo review: This is in the same conceptual neighborhood as Zoologist's Squid (aquatic incense), but while that is the inky deep sea depths, giant enigmatic sea creatures, and thalassophobia, this is a sexy sea nymph daughter of Poseidon attending your seance at the tide pools, incense burning, and water glistening under the moonlight.

June 4: Rogue Perfumery - Champs Lunaires (FB):

Rogue has quickly become a recent favorite house, with perfumer Manuel Cross exploring ‘traditional’ formulas with his own creative spin. While I enjoy quite a few from the house (Jasmin Antique, Bon Monsieur, Bonded, Flos Mortis, etc), Champs Lunaires has emerged as a favorite. It’s a soft tuberose, accented by creamy sandalwood and the slightest dose of coconut milk (it’s hardly there, but is detectable, and enhances the tuberose nicely). It has great longevity for me as well. A steal at $85/30ml.

June 5: Arte Profumi - Samharam (Sample):

On my to buy list. Almost painfully simple, but executed so nicely. Copied from my Parfumo review: Straddling the line between incense and amber, this time-traveling triumph revisits the Wise Men’s gifts of frankincense, myrrh, and the (liquid) gold of benzoin, seemingly unlocking genetic memories of ancient trade ports, spice routes, and worship through the ages. This is no soaring, contemporary take on ‘churchy’ incense, but a raw, resinous reversion back to basics; a universal common ancestor of modern incense and ambers. Divine, in more than one sense of the word.

June 6: Inverso Profumi - Ladri di Fichi (FB):

My personal favorite fig fragrance. Copied from my Parfumo review: Imagine a time lapse fixated on a fig tree, first green with new spring growth, then to unripe fruit, and then to a masked man plucking a ripened fig from the tree, juice dripping down his chin as he sneaks a bite. Or later, young lovers both gorging on fresh, ripe figs, laying in the grass, and kissing in the humid warmth hidden by the tree's branches. Ladri di Fichi (or 'fig thieves') begins as an almost bitter 'chlorophyllic' stemmy green unripe fig that 'ripens' upon exposure to skin and throughout the drydown in a nearly magical transformation. A fig fragrance for those who enjoy the fig fruit versus only the leaves.

June 7: FZOTIC - Deixis (FB):

For anyone unfamiliar with the ‘lore’ around Deixis, this fragrance was created in a time of reflection and mourning by the perfumer, Bruno Fazzolari, during the end of life period for his father. The focus on one of perfumery’s most important ingredients — labdanum — in his take on the classic amber accord often used in ritual and religion mirrors the meditative and ritualistic process of diving into a passion for comfort. This is a fairly sweet amber, and while it is labdanum forward, frankinsence and styrax are quite prominent as well. Sandalwood is another nice addition here and is detectable, especially after extended dry down. It’s quite beautiful and not too dense, though it is a bit too sweet to wear during the hot Texas summers so I’m looking forward to spending a lot of time with this one in the cooler months. While the direct drop release was limited to just 100 bottles and 50 travel sizes, samples are available as part of the custom set or moonlight set. Given this, I do believe Deixis will likely see a standard release as part of the core collection in time, especially with the discontinuation of Feu Secret.

June 8: Xinu - Copala (Sample):

An ode to Copal resin, this creation from perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux opens with a blast of resins (what I am assuming is ‘copal’), before mesquite wood, a bit of pink pepper, and a small dose of vanilla emerge in the dry down. A beautiful take on this uncommonly used note! (As an aside, copal is derived from the Nahuatl ‘copalli’ which means incense, so saying ‘copal incense’ is like saying ‘chai tea’). I very much enjoy sampling scents that utilize culturally important notes outside of typical western perfumery. Another that immediately comes to mind in recent conversation is Phoenix Flame, which utilizes sumac.

June 9: Lula Curioca - Claridad en Silencio (Sample):

On my to buy list. I may have already ordered a bottle. Possibly maybe. This captures the scent of fresh, green, humid dew like nothing else I’ve tried. Copied from my Parfumo review: Robin calls wake you just before dawn, the bedroom window left ajar overnight. Sheer curtains dance in the lightly humid morning breeze, the faint scent of the garden lingering in suspension. You pull yourself out of bed to watch the sunrise, barely making it to the window before a golden sliver emerges above the horizon. The morning light transforms your garden into a sparkling dew-jeweled wonderland. Even the robins pause for a moment, as if in awe of the beauty of a new day.

June 10: Oriza L. Legrand - Relique d’Amour (FB):

Lily forward incense that is intensely ‘cold.’ Spraying this feels like air conditioning in the intense heat of the summer. I adore this despite needing to reply every 2-3 hours or so. If you enjoy the incense category (or florals, honestly), I really recommend giving this a sniff.

June 11: Serge Lutens - Tubereuse Criminelle (FB):

An oddball masterpiece. Depending on your point of reference, this can be a odd, cold, and spicy tuberose or it could be grandma’s purse stuffed with wint-o-green Lifesavers. It’s a little bit odd, but a lotta bit wonderful. While currently unavailable as the grattaciel bottle collection is being discontinued, I can only hope that it makes its return in a standard bottle or bell jar in the near future. I would be shame if the end of this 27 year old fragrance went out with such a whimper.

June 12: 10 Corso Como - 10 Corso Como (Sample):

This was a weird love for me. Normally, I do not like much rose, geranium, or oud, so all of these combined into one fragrance seemed like a recipe for disaster. However, this reads a lot more ‘musky sandalwood’ forward to me. Like an old wooden drawer full of dried rose petals. The rose is very pared back and beautifully blended making for a pretty unique presentation. This one sits very close to skin almost immediately, but does last for quite some time. I ended up buying a bottle at a very good price (~$80) simply because I have nothing like it at all and it’s the first of this scent profile I’ve deeply enjoyed.

June 13: D:SOL MMXVI - Tesoro (FB):

A wonderful creamy citrus/suede. Copied from my Parfumo review: Attending a late-spring evening outdoor party overlooking the Mediterranean on the island of Mallorca (which inspired this and other fragrances from this house), there's a faint scent of oranges riding the breeze from the Sóller valley. You spot a good friend across the way and approach. Leaning in for a long embrace, you're met with the smell of creamy suede -- their jacket from one of the nearby leather-workers in Inca.

June 14: Rogue Perfumery - Champs Lunaires (FB): 2nd Wear

June 15: Marlou - Heliodose (Sample):

A intoxicating, heady, dense, indolic Tiare fragrance. One of my favorites from this fascinating house and on my to buy list. Copied from my Parfumo review: Robin, drawn into Poison Ivy’s lair — humid, dewy, musky, and green — quickly reaches the inner sanctum, where her flower-throne bursts open with the intoxicating scent of rich, indolic tiare flowers. Seduced, Robin finds himself tricked into a poison kiss...With a scent like this, I’d have likely met the same fate.

June 16: Inverso Profumi - Ladri di Fichi (FB): 2nd Wear

June 17: Astier de Villette - Ambre Liquide (Sample):

A fascinating amber from the famed perfumer Dominique Ropion, based on a formula from the year 1348! Quite unlike most ‘ambers’ being made today, this one leans borderline medicinal and aromatic. The prominent styrax along with the cistus absolute and rose add a very interesting dimension to the typical myrrh and olibanum combination here. At moments it can even come off a bit spicy — brief whiffs of cinnamon dance in and out of frame here. On my to buy list!

June 18: Atelier Materi - Narcisse Taiji (FB):

This was one of the first floral fragrances I added to my collection a while back and still remains one of my favorites. This spicy floral opens with a blast of pear accord with a smidge of tuberose, drying down to a gorgeous narcissus with ginger, hay, bran and musk. There are notes of patchouli and leather here, but I don’t really get much of them at all, personally. This is one of the most unisex florals I’ve ever come across and smells good on pretty much everyone. Can be found from discounters occasionally for ~40% off retail, which is a great value for 100ml. This also lasts all day on me (8-10 hours).

June 19: 10 Corso Como - 10 Corso Como (Bottle): Purchased the bottle; 2nd Wear.

June 20: Pigmentarium - Murmur (Sample):

I really wanted to like this and the notes seemed to imply that I might, but this ultimately ended up going way too powdery on my skin. Ended up as a scrubber for me!

June 21: Atelier Materi - Narcisse Taiji (FB): 2nd Wear

June 22: Carta Perfumery - Moena 12 | 69 (Sample):

While this little indie house only has two fragrances, they are quite lovely! Moena is made with distilled moena alcanfor oil sustainably sourced from Peru, along with notes of tea, moss, tobacco, and woods. It reminds me of a used but mostly dried out tea bag on a piece of fragrant wood. Very concentrated perfume oil that sits quite close to skin. Unfortunately for me, this did not last longer than an hour on me before being undetectable, which is a shame for how nice it is! I will revisit this some more in the future since it may perform better during cooler seasons, possibly. I also sampled Immortelle 43 | 17, which I ended up buying a bottle of (more on that later). One note: the samples come in — dare I say — the nicest presentation for samples that I’ve experienced to date.

June 23: Astier de Villette - Mantes La Jolie (FB):

Copied from my Parfumo review: With one of my favorite fragrance openings of all time, Mantes-la-Jolie begins with a viscerally photo-real crushed mint and basil, as if smelling your hands after trimming your herb garden. The dry down progresses to a nice fig within a half-hour or so, supported in the base by a light cedar. An aromatic fresh masterpiece that as of right now is one of my absolute favorites for warm weather.

June 24: Inverso Profumi - Ladri di Fichi (FB): 3rd Wear

June 25: Carta Perfumery - Immortelle 43 | 17 (FB):

A spicy, herbal, warm immortelle that opens with a slightly bitter orange peel and spices. Orris and ambergris are here, supporting the radiant immortelle. As it dries down even further, some sweetness from the honey emerges but never to a cloying degree. To me, this smells like the color yellow — fitting given both immortelle flowers and the fragrance oil are both yellow as well. Enthralled with this, I purchased a full bottle. While only 15ml and fairly expensive for that little bit of liquid, this extrait comes in a glass splash style bottle with globe glass stopper for application. Very small amounts applied to pulse points are enough to last 6-8 hours on skin, so the 15ml bottle will likely last a very long time!

June 26: D:SOL MMXVI - Tesoro (FB): 2nd Wear

June 27: Rogue Perfumery - Champs Lunaires (FB): 3rd Wear

June 28: Iconofly - Personne (Travel):

In retrospect, I wish I would have bought the full bottle, but I have a rule against buying FB blind (usually). Copied from my Parfumo review: A burst of fresh herbs and greenery laid on a bed of oats and grains in a wood bowl. Blended so well it is difficult to pull apart individual notes; the mealy, oat base clipping the wings of what could possibly be an abrasive, soaring, bitter aromatic that flies a bit too close to the sun. The result is a grounded blend that has wonderful herbal complexity but with a certain softness and mealy depth. The chartreuse of fragrance, in both color and concept, both liquids worthy of top-shelf status.

June 29: Cocoapink - Climbing Star Jasmine (Sample):

I have been searching for a photo-real recreation of climbing star jasmine for some time. This one came recommended to me so I ordered a sample. Due to demand, the current wait time with this brand is 3 weeks or so, so it took quite some time to get in (which is fine!). It’s fairly close, but feels like if someone isolated the flower in a zero humidity lab, if that makes sense. Part of what makes these flowers so intoxicating is how they interact with humidity in the hot, humid southern summers. This iteration comes off slightly cold, which is where it misses the mark for me. That being said, I am after something VERY specific. If I divorce this from the specific scent memory I have and approach it as its own thing, it’s really quite nice. The bottles are very affordable, so who knows how I will feel with some additional wears. I’m waiting for the next humid and scorching hot day to give it a real stress test, since maybe what is missing is *real* humidity.

June 30: Pigmentarium - Erotikon (Sample):

I admit, I fell victim to the hype around this house and ordered a discovery set. Unfortunately, it seems the general DNA with many of the things from this house just do not mesh well with me. Erotikon is probably my ‘favorite’ from the line, leaning into the sort of anti-gourmand category (a la ummagumma/corpse revivier). The patchouli/chocolate accord tends to lean a bit funky at times to some, but works pretty nicely here — almost reading a bit boozy. I do not think I would buy this since it does get cloying to me after a couple hours, but if I were to have to recommend a somewhat masculine-leaning gourmand, this would be on my short list.

If you made it this far, I’m curious: what were some of your favorite fragrances in June? What are you excited to try?

After a long time in drafts, I’ve finally finished up this next installment for my home stereo guide featuring source components.

When building a home stereo system, it’s important first to consider what source component(s) you are going to use, since these will determine what is needed downstream to properly perform in your system. This should hopefully serve as a good primer, informing you of the most popular (and some less popular) source components as well as some key considerations.

Please note that this will not be 100% comprehensive. I will not be covering more obscure niche sources like 8-track, laser disk, etc. as these serve very, very niche collectors in this day and age. I will also not be going into a ton of depth about downstream requirements beyond surface level overviews at this time, as I will do additional articles in the future covering things like pre-amplification and amplification.

Keep in mind that these guides are meant to give general information and tips to those who have no idea where to start and what things are without overwhelming with super-specific details. There are a million guides, forums, and publications online that can be searched for more specific information to help do deeper dives as you feel fit, and I encourage you to do so!

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What is a Source Component?

Source components are the first piece of gear in your audio chain and serves as your media player of choice. They often utilize physical media (such as CDs/SACDs, cassettes, vinyl records), but can also include radio (AM/FM tuners) or digital media files (streamers).

For many consumers in 2025, their primary avenue for listening to music is streaming. Many already utilize plug-and-play stereo solutions with integrated sources, amplifiers, and speakers that are designed for streaming — look at the Apple HomePod or a Sonos system — so it’s not a huge leap to start with a streaming source in this case. However, there are large groups of consumers with CDs/SACDs and/or vinyl records where starting with one of these sources might make more sense, too.

Ultimately, the choice on which source(s) to start with is a personal one, dictated by how you choose to consume music on a daily basis, what physical media you own, and budget.

Digital Sources

STREAMERS

Streamers are designed to connect to your LAN (ideally) and/or WiFi to stream music from your personal library and/or streaming platforms for playback on your system. Often, they come with built-in DACs (digital to analog converter), but some are pure streamers and will need to be connected to a separate DAC unit to work properly.

For an out of the box, plug-and-play experience, there are many options at all budget levels that have the streamer and DAC in the same box with a near seamless experiences - Bluesound & HiFi Rose are two brand examples, but most major audio equipment brands make some form of streamer.

There are a few important considerations:

1. Are the music files you are streaming lossless? (FLAC is a common lossless format for files). Qobuz and Tidal both offer lossless streaming. Apple Music in lossless format is not cooperative with most streamers on the market. Spotify is quite lossy (though supposedly a ‘lossless’ plan is in the works via 'supremium'). Lossless is important when sending the signal through a DAC and into your (expensive) system. No amount of good gear can make lossy files sound amazing since the output sound is only as good as the source.

2. Do you have or want a stand-along DAC unit? A DAC - or Digital/Analog Converter - takes the digital signal from the files and converts it to an analog signal to then feed into the rest of the analog system. There are also some integrated amplifiers (or stereo receivers) with built-in DAC chips, but 99% of the time they aren't ideal. Even 'high end' integrateds with optional DAC modules will be outperformed by separates. The DAC is frankly the most important part of a digital source (streaming or CD) and will have the greatest impact on the sound quality from digital files, so best to splurge here if you are going to splurge at all on a digital streaming setup.

For quick startup, a streamer/DAC combo unit is easiest and has the lowest cost of entry. However, often the only upgrade avenue is to replace the entire unit. Since DAC chips are constantly improving, this is important to keep in mind. Many mid-tier streamer/DAC combo units offer functionality to bypass the built-in DAC and output into an external DAC. If going the combo unit route, it would be best to get a unit that allows this functionality to leave room for future upgrades via an external DAC unit if you so desire.

There are also streamer-only units available (though not as common), however it can often be more economical if going this route to create a streamer with a Raspberry Pi. Can find instructions on how to set one up, as well as programs, tablet controller integration, etc online fairly easily. Can also go the media server route as well. With these streamer-only solutions, an external DAC unit would be necessary.

DACs

If going the external DAC route, there are options at every price point. This piece of equipment will be the main difference-maker in the sound of your digital files/streams, so opting for the best DAC chip you can afford is a good idea. There is a LOT of marketing jargon and superfluous features with these units that can drive prices up very fast, so focus on the chip and the specific functionality you need for your application. This advice also applies to DACs purchased for pairing with CD Transports (covered later).

There are a handful of types of DACs on the market, but the two most common are typically R-2R ladder and Delta-sigma. Depending on who you ask, one may sound more ‘analog’ than the other, but my best advice is to worry less about this particular point and more about how each individual unit sounds to you in your system. I have heard DACs of both types sound amazing and terrible, at all price points!

CD/SACD PLAYERS & CD/SACD TRANSPORTS

These terms often confuse casual consumers. What is the difference? A CD player is a unit that decodes CDs and has a built-in DAC for output to an amplifier. A CD transport differs in that it does not have a built-in DAC, so an external DAC unit is required. All the transport does is read the information off the disk. Think of a CD transport as a ‘streamer only’ unit, to compare to the previous streaming examples. Today, the most recent advice is to buy a CD transport and use an external DAC, as most combination units do not offer nearly the same level of sound quality as separates. If going the CD route, think of the transport as the record player and the DAC as the phono pre-amplifier. However, there are some high-end brands that offer incredible combination units - such as Esoteric - though at a hefty price tag.

In the audiophile space, there are also CD/SACD players and transports, designed to be able to read both. SACDs offer a substantial improvement in dynamic range and resolution versus standard CDs, so this is often the ‘CD of choice’ for audiophiles. Selection isn’t quite as vast as standard CDs, however.

Again, like streamers, the DAC is the most important part of the equation with these. If going for a player, look for models that allow you to bypass the built-in DAC if you wish for greatest flexibility. At the high end of CD playback, most get a CD transport unit and a very expensive DAC unit.

Ultimately, with digital audio equipment, you ideally want the ability to bypass any built-in DAC chip to connect to an external unit in the future or to buy separates. This future-proofing allows you to upgrade the component that will really make the biggest difference in the digital playback in the future as the technology continues to improve, should you desire to do so. Otherwise, you are forced to upgrade the entire unit, which can sometimes prove to be much more expensive as you would either need another combination unit or would need to invest in separates at that time.

While CDs might seem a bit dated or not 'en vogue' at the moment, there is a vast amount of music that has never been issued on vinyl available for playback on CD, as well as plenty of music that has not made it onto streaming platforms for whatever reason, such as a lot of Japanese music, where many artists and labels there have resisted the push to publish music on international streaming services for various reasons.

Additionally, it is possible to obtain fairly rare albums on CD at fairly low cost in comparison to vinyl. They take up quite a bit less space as well. While they lack some of the tangible qualities that draw people to vinyl, they do offer a fairly low-cost and accessible way to put together a music library that isn't beholden to digital streaming licensing that can change at any moment. At the very least, they can serve as a supplement to fill in gaps where there is no other availability.

Analog Sources

TURNTABLES

There are two main types of turntables - belt-drive and direct-drive. The former uses a belt between the motor and the platter to spin it, whereas the direct-drive has a motor to directly drive the platter. Direct drive is technically superior when it comes to keeping precise rotational speed, while belt drives are less accurate, and get less accurate as the belts wear so require regular replacement.

While it may seem like direct-drive is a no-brainer because of their more accurate speed, belt drive tables offer much more flexibility when it comes to vibrational isolation, allowing for decoupling of the motor from the table completely. There are some belt models where the motor is housed completely separately from the platter and plinth of the table to further reduce any vibrations. While there is much debate among audiophiles as to which is ‘better’ it mostly comes down to personal preference. The vast majority of higher end tables are belt-drive, however, if that is any indication of overall sentiment.

In my personal opinion, sub-$1000, direct drive is just as effective as belt drive options, and for anyone looking to moonlight as a DJ, direct drive is nearly required. Moving into the mid to high range of gear, belt drive options tend to be much more sophisticated and at this point I’d encourage going that direction. Of course like anything else, it all comes down to your personal preference.

There’s an enormous amount of variety with various approaches to construction with turntables from suspension to various other techniques. Doing research here is important to figure out what you prefer. Ultimately when just looking at the basics, a counterweight is an absolute must. I would also highly suggest a cue lever to preserve your stylus and records since it will gently lower the stylus versus dropping. An anti-skate weight is also important.

Some higher end turntables allow for the capability to swap out tonearms to different models for upgrading purposes (though most require some sort of plate to accommodate different sizes or brands). Some tables will also have the space for multiple tonearms (which can be useful if you want a separate arm and mono cartridge for ‘true’ playback of older mono records, or just have different cartridges for different types of music).

On the lower entry-level models, there are some turntable options that offer built-in preamplifiers. These are usually just only barely ‘ok’ and are fine for someone just starting out if they want quick plug and play without needing a lot of gear. I would suggest if going this route to ensure this can be bypassed if desired (or be willing to upgrade turntables in the future).

The tonearm and cartridge choices will make the biggest difference to sound from the source. Some well-regarded arms include those from Rega, SME, Well-tempered, etc., but many manufacturers have recommended pairings at different price points. Typically, their recommendations are great to go with as they tune their tables to these arms unless you have quite a bit of experience with different arms to make an informed decision otherwise.

CARTRIDGES

Cartridges (which have the stylus attached) are what directly read the record surface, and are extremely important. These are made up of two main components: the cartridge body and the stylus with stylus tip. Typically, a diamond stylus tip is preferred for durability, but sapphire is also available. There are various types of styluses as well — from conical and eliptical to shibata and microline. The main thing to remember here is diamond-tipped microline has the longest lifespan, with decreasing lifespan/durability as stylus form/tips are reduced in quality.

Usually the ‘expected’ use time for diamond tipped MicroLine stylus is approximately 2000 hours of play. At 2 hours of playback a day, this would be about 2.75 years of life before replacement (either the entire body or the tip). For some cartridges, the stylus can just be easily swapped out by the consumer, but for higher-end models (including all moving coil that I am aware of) the only options are fairly expensive re-tipping services or full replacement. When some cartridges can cost thousands of dollars, the cost per use can get quite high.

There are two types of cartridges - MM (moving magnet) and MC (moving coil). The latter has three sub-types: High Output, Medium Output, Low Output. Medium output is fairly uncommon. Most beginner and lower priced cartridges are the Moving Magnet type, though some ‘affordable’ options exist with HOMC (high output moving coil) cartridges. The output metric refers to the output voltage from the cartridge. Typically, LOMC (low output moving coil) is considered the ‘best’ as it tends to have the least amount of detail loss and bigger soundstage. These also tend to be the most expensive and require specialized gear - such as step-up transformers or phono pre-amplifiers specifically built to support them.

Moving Magnet and HOMC both are compatible with most ‘standard’ phono inputs on integrated amplifiers or pre-amplifiers with phono inputs. Some MOMC can also work, though typically not recommended. To further complicate things, cartridges all have different masses, and each tonearm has a range of masses they support for cartridges, so making sure that you pair the cartridge mass with the arm’s possible operating range is essential or else it will not work properly. For help with this, reference the spec sheets for your respective tonearm when choosing a cartridge, and don’t hesitate to reach out to the company (or ask your sales rep) if they can assist with proper matching. There are plenty of online resources available to assist here as well, if interested, as it’s a bit too technical for me to go into deep detail in this guide.

CASSETTE DECKS & REEL TO REEL PLAYERS

For the tape-inclined audiophile who prefers reel-to-reel and/or cassette tapes, there are limited options on the market to handle these source formats today, though some increased market interest does seem to be encouraging production of some alternative options.

Considering R2R tapes can run anywhere from $400 to thousands of dollars each, this tends to be an extremely niche source option, limited to a select group of audiophiles. Reel-to-reel tapes have the capability to present better quality and higher fidelity sound than any other analog media, but this improvement comes at great cost. Since this is the case, I won’t really go into much detail about the format here.

There are very few cassette players being manufacturered today, with a handful of options primarily made in China. Most cassette collectors end up sourcing a ‘vintage’ piece of gear to play them back — anything from a Sony boombox to a Nakamichi Dragon.

Hopefully this provides some insight into various sources in use today and proves useful in choosing which sources you would like to base your home stereo around!

The next installment will feature pre-amplification, including phono pre-amps/stages, step-up transformers, and stereo pre-amplifiers.

Sometimes escaping to somewhere a bit more remote to enjoy some natural beauty is just what we need in order to decompress and re-center a bit. Last weekend, I visited family in Montana and got to spend a bit of time in Yellowstone. While the weather was a bit sketchy at times, it really was quite beautiful.

Since returning home, I’ve been combing through some recent releases and finds and picked out a handful of songs to share that I hope you will all enjoy! Most of these are Jazz or Jazz-adjacent this time, so sorted this one in my Jazz section instead, not that it really matters!

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The Circling Sun - Constellation (2025)

It’s fairly rare that I discover a group and really enjoy their music only to get surprised with a brand new album shortly after, but The Circling Sun is back with an upcoming album release — Orbits — on July 11, 2025!

They just recently dropped the first track on the album called ‘Constellation’ on May 22nd, but I’ve already listened to this quite a few times. I really enjoy the sort of psychedelic spiritual Jazz they are doing, reminiscent of bands like Azymuth, etc.

Intermood - New Krush! (2025)

Released in March of this year, Intermood (hailing from Australia) craft interesting music fusing psychedelic Jazz and hints of things like nu-disco to create something entirely their own with this fun EP called ‘Casuarina.’

The closing track on this 4-track EP called ‘New Krush!’ really caught my attention with a pretty upbeat tempo, lush instrumentation, and really fun sax solo.

BADBADNOTGOOD, V.C.R - Found a Light (Beale Street) (2025)

Canadian jazz band BADBADNOTGOOD partners with V.C.R (Veronica Camille Ratliff) on this fabulously funky and soulful track. BBNG’s wonderful instrumentation (especially the flute and percussion) set up the vocals from V.C.R and Co. beautifully, making for a lively seven minute track.

As of right now, I don’t think this is tied to any album/EP release, but I would not be surprised to see it pop up on one in the future.

Finn Rees - It’s Behind Me Now (2024)

Funny enough, also hailing from Australia (very Aussie/NZ list this time around), pianist and bandleader Finn Rees released his debut ‘Dawn is a Melody’ pretty much exactly a year ago. For a debut recording, I find the album to be quite well done and a beautiful listen overall.

‘It’s Behind Me Now’ has a sweeping, cinematic quality to it that just sucked me in and kept me enthralled the entire time. Beautiful!

That’s all for now! All four of these tracks (and corresponding albums, if applicable) are available on the artists’ respective Bandcamp pages. Please support them if you are able!

What are some tracks that have caught your ear this month?

My next brand feature in my exploration of independent perfume brands in 2025 is Inverso Profumi. Inverso is a new(er) independent fragrance house founded in 2023 with a line of wonderful ‘core collection’ fragrances as well as a selection of limited edition & ‘artist proof’ options, all in extrait de parfum concentration. The brand is family owned and operated, with celebrated photographer, painter, and art historian Kristina Nazarevskaia managing the business and serving as inspiration for her perfumer husband, Maurizio.

When crafting fragrances for the brand, Maurizio takes inspiration from Kristina’s photography work with fragrances such as ‘Poesia’, ‘Stai Ferma’, and ‘Private’ being inspired directly by her photo books of the same name, just to point to a few examples.

Stumbling across the brand when browsing through the Stele online catalog after their most recent update, I was intrigued and ordered a discovery set. Unfortunately for my wallet, there were a few in that set that I enjoyed and ended up ordering a full bottle of one — Ladri di Fichi — fairly quickly, which I just received along with a couple complementary samples of other offerings.

I wanted to share some (brief) thoughts on the fragrances in the discovery set I purchased, plus the additional samples and experience with the full bottle order to help shed some light on a brand that deserves more recognition!

Please note: all opinions are my own. Items were purchased with my own money (minus the complementary samples with the full bottle). I have not been asked or paid to write a review. I always recommend sampling everything before buying — things wear differently on everyone.

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Discovery Set

While I ordered this pre-made discovery set from Stele, Inverso also offers the option to make your own custom selection of 6 or 10 samples from the core & limited edition lines directly on their website for $50 or $80, respectively. Each sample is 2 ml, so there is plenty to get quite a bit of wear out of each one and the sample price per ml is quite low! Here are some quick thoughts on the fragrances in this set:

1. Ladri di Fichi - With a name like ‘fig thieves’ it’s fairly clear what the concept behind this fragrance is — Fig. However, unlike other fig-centric releases I’ve smelled, Ladri di Fichi does a wonderful job really painting the picture of a fig tree from fresh, green leaves and buds, to ripening fruit, to plucking the fruit from the tree and taking a bite. Where other fig fragrances often stay fairly linear (on me), the evolution of this one through dry down really made me fall in love. This is the fig I have been looking for and am very happy to add a bottle to my collection.

2. Incantesimo - An incredibly well-blended, balanced, and smooth lavender fragrance. I normally find lavender a bit too overpowering in fragrances to wear unless it is a very minor blended ingredient and tend to prefer it for things like fabric sprays and such, but this really impressed me. After the aromatic opening, it dries down into a beautiful warm amber/vanilla/tonka base. Quite special and one of my favorites from the brand. On my full bottle want list.

3. Stai Ferma - Inspired by Kristina’s photography book depicting the beauty of the female body through close-up macro details, this fragrance is a spicy, aromatic release that is modeled loosely after Bakhoor, which can often feature many of the same notes (though blends tend to be family specific). As it dries down, the lightly smoky resinous base moves this incense from fresh to burnt. If you enjoy a spiced woody incense, check this one out!

4. Sacrilege - This one opens as a spicy rose and dries down to a somewhat smoky, dry incense. If you like the idea of roses in a Catholic church, this one may be for you! I can only find this on Stele’s website, so it may be limited edition or a Stele exclusive (?).

5. Private - Inspired by one of Kristina’s photography books of the same name, featuring the female form depicted in contrast to landscapes, this fragrance is the brand’s take on the classic oud/rose combination. While this category of fragrances is not what I usually enjoy, it’s definitely worth trying if you like this classic combination as Maurizio puts his own spin on it here that is quite a bit smoother than many others.

6. Whanui - This is an aromatic, slightly leathery vanilla that the description claims is a ‘vanilla for those who typically shy away from vanilla.’ I might go as far as to say this is probably the closest in the lineup to a ‘designer’-style fragrance and should be very approachable to anyone new to niche/independent perfumery since it is quite crowd-pleasing. To me, while this is unisex, it might lean slightly more masculine depending on your skin. Really nice!

Bottle + Complimentary Samples

After spending some time with the discovery set, I ended up purchasing a bottle of Ladri di Fichi directly from Inverso since Stele was out of stock. I had a nice little chat with Kristina via Instagram to check on re-stock conditions and mentioned that this happened to be my 50th full bottle in my collection. When opening my package, she included a handwritten note celebrating the 50th bottle, plus put my name on both of the bags (the one for the bottle and the outer bag that also held the samples — see photo at the top of the article). From someone in sales myself, this sort of personal detail makes such a big impact on customers and was a really nice touch!

With the full bottle I received three additional samples of fragrances that I did not previously get to smell with the discovery set:

1. Cimmerian - The blast of cedar, rum, plum, and spices in the opening of this one is delicious! While the base is full of fairly heavier notes (vanilla, amber, oud, leather), other notes like violet, patchouli, and vetiver help to cut through these traditionally dense notes leaving a warm scent that never gets stuffy. Would like a full bottle of this one eventually!

2. Eterea - This limited edition offering for this year is a floral through and through. It opens with a burst of bright bergamot, pepper, and passion flowers, with hibiscus, rose, and jasmine. The base here of musc, sandalwood, and ambrette seeds conjures to mind finding an old book of pressed flowers in a box in an attic, which is fitting as the fragrance is named ‘ethereal’. It is not quite as dusty/musky as something like Zoologist Moth, of course, but it definitely made me feel like these flowers were dried versus fresh.

3. Poesia - Inspired by another of Kristina’s photography books that features photos from Sicily, this fragrance is centered around the smell of an old, worn leather jacket. With tiny bits of jasmine, oud, musk, and patchouli, the fragrance gets a tiny bit of an edge that is just a little bit ‘dirty’ without being skanky, but makes the leather feel broken in. For fans of leather-centric fragrances, definitely check this one out!

Final Thoughts

From the rest of what I’ve sampled, Incantesimo and Cimmerian are definitely on my full bottle wishlist!

My suggested 6 piece discovery set for those new to the brand (based on what I’ve sampled) are: Ladri di Fichi, Incantesimo, Cimmerian, Whanui, Poesia, and Eteria (for floral lovers) or Stai Ferma (for those who prefer more aromatic things).

I really like what Inverso is doing quite a bit. There is such beauty in creation inspired by one’s spouse. This is a labor of admiration and love and it’s very evident in Maurizio’s fragrances. I am looking forward to trying what they release in the future (and picking up those other two bottles at some point)! If you have the opportunity to sample things from this brand either at home or via ordering discovery sets online, give them a try!

I’ve been a busy bee lately, so finding time to post has been a challenge. I’m overdue for a Jazz post, but received a shipment of albums from one of my Japanese contacts last week so thought it would be a perfect opportunity to share some great music. Here are the five Jazz albums I just received!

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Michel Sardaby - Gail (1975)

Sardaby, while well-known in France, doesn’t have a huge following outside of Europe for some reason. While his discography is fairly small for someone who was actively playing for 40+ years, I’ve yet to consider any of his albums ‘misses’ for me. While Sardaby passed away at the end of 2023 (at the age of 88), he’s left behind a wonderful group of albums that serve as a great legacy to his soulful, seductive playing.

Here’s the title track:

Grant Green - Matador (1979)

I lucked into a near mint copy of the original pressing of this album, which was initially only released in Japan until its first reissue in the US in 1990. One of Green’s finest albums, Matador features him front and center, showcasing some of his best improvisation work across his entire discography. For fans of Jazz guitar, I consider this an essential and very important album.

Here he is playing the Coltrane arrangement of ‘My Favorite Things’ and if you didn’t know any better, you could almost say it was his!

Duke Jordan Trio - So Nice Duke (1982)

This album was released during a weird time for the TBM label, during a short two-year stint with Trio Records (another Japanese jazz label) handling pressing via a master-transfer agreement that ended in legal disputes.

The album was recorded live on analog tape at the So Nice club in Japan in 1982. For a live recording, the sound is pretty superb.

The Russ Freeman Trio - S/T (1954)

Originally released in 1954 on 10”, this was reissued in Japan in 1990 on 12” (which is shown here). While the original 10” is quite rare, it featured Russ Freeman’s first sessions as a bandleader. While the recording quality is definitely reflective of the time period, the music is simply beautiful.

If you stumble across this anywhere for a decent price, pick it up!

Isao Suzuki & Sunao Wada with the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio, George Otsuka Quintet + 2 - Live in ‘5 Days in Jazz 1974’ Now’s The Time (1974)

A grail album for me, this one is a rarity even inside Japan, with copies fetching hundreds of dollars each (mine wasn’t cheap either). This album — frankly, a huge jam session — features the best of the best of Japan’s jazz talent from the time period, recorded live for TBM.

For fans of Japanese jazz (and jazz in general), I strongly suggest giving this one a listen, if only digitally. I’m over the moon to add this one to my collection.

That’s all for now! Hopefully there’s a few new ones for readers to dive into. Up next, I’m working on another HiFi post featuring source equipment and then a fragrance post highlighting some recent sample testing and bottle pickups.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Spring!

From a citrus scent reminiscing about a time ‘when oranges were traded like gemstones’, to one celebrating the Cistus ‘rock rose’ of the Mediterranean, D:SOL MMXVI aims to create fragrances that step beyond evoking only a location, instead capturing feelings, nostalgia, and human connection to the Mediterranean region.

With an initial launch in 2020, Berlin’s Dennis Werner aims to create a line of fragrances that are ‘selective but not elitist.’ With ingredients sourced in Grasse, France, and bottle and packaging production taking place entirely in Europe by small manufacturers, the brand demonstrates that the dedication toward connecting the fragrances to the region extends beyond simply how they smell.

So far, the brand has collaborated with two perfumers — Marie Urban Le Febvre, who was behind Tesoro, Herbes, Terram, and Sombra; and Delphine Thierry, who created Cistus. There are plans to collaborate with other perfumers in the future as well.

After recently sampling (and quickly buying) a bottle of Tesoro, I circled back to sample the rest of the line and wanted to share some thoughts, as well as songs that I feel capture a bit of the feeling of the fragrances, to me.

NOTE: I am not sponsored nor did I receive any sort of compensation to write this. All opinions are my own.

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Tesoro

Meant to capture the Sóller ‘valley of oranges’ on Mallorca, I imagine a warm breeze blowing from the Mediterranean, carrying the light scent of orange trees and light undertones of leather (Mallorca is also quite famous for leatherwork, especially Inca).

In the base is a very soft, airy leather — maybe one of the most airy leathers I’ve ever encountered — with a warm, sunkissed musky (almost creamy) citrus on top that blooms so beautifully in warmer weather. For fans of citrus notes who want something less bright and more reflective and interesting, this is a winner.

I used my entire sample of this in two days (which I rarely ever do with samples), so it was a clear sign to pick this one up!

Sombra

This release is the start of a series oud fragrances, this one featuring the classic oud and rose pairing, but with a unique perspective. Slightly tweaked after the initial batch to rebalance the ingredients slightly, this ‘new’ edition is quite sensual. This is sexy, but in a restrained way: a peek at a midriff while someone reaches for something; eye contact and a smile from across a room.

The imagery around this release focuses on an embrace of lovers under the fall of night. Seduction. There’s a fresh burst of citrus, pepper, bright florals in the opening that quickly fades like the setting sun, making way for a dark, spicy rose note that takes center-stage for about half an hour. At this point, the oud starts to really shine through and the fragrance gets a bit more intimate.

I don’t normally care for rose in fragrances since it can be a bit overwhelming to me, but the execution here is really quite beautiful. While initially out of the sample I wasn’t sure what to make of it, it’s quickly become a favorite from the set. A relatively restrained rose & oud. I have nothing remotely similar to this in my collection and would enjoy owning this one at some point.

Terram

A fragrance that looks to capture the coming of autumn, with sappy conifers, mossy underbrush, and benzoin-forward ‘amber.’ Opening with a peppery freshness that feels cohesive across much of this line, an intoxicating very lightly ‘fruity’ pine and cedar accord emerges, before later drying down to quite dry heartwood.

It only takes an hour or two to progress fully on my skin (though it lingers for a good 4-6 hours). It’s a much slower process on clothes, so I would likely spray both to have a nice layed experience. I found this quite beautiful, and it made me think immediately of very early autumn when the weather is still warm but the vegetation is beginning to shift. A solo walk through the woods through fallen pine needles and dry, crumbling leaves, crunching with each step…

Herbes

Meant to capture the scent of the liqueur “Hierbas de Mallorca,” an herbal drink featuring anise and a host of other aromatics, produced for over 500 years on Mallorca. The liqueur was traditionally used to treat various ailments (usually digestive), but continues to be enjoyed by locals even today.

This opens with a burst of citrus, mint, and anise, drying down to a creamy sandalwood base. This is, as expected, quite herbal, though it’s also quite light. For me, this one wore the lightest of the whole line. Complex!

I imagine sitting at a long dinner table outdoors in at dusk, string lights just turning on. Dinner has come and gone, and I’m sipping on a glass of Hierbas de Mallorca and listening in on conversation. Like this one a lot!

Cistus

In reverence of the Cistus plant, Delphine Thierry’s first creation for D:SOL MMXVI seeks to paint a picture of the flower, the plant, and the earth from which it came. A variety of cistus is actually the source of the resin labdanum, with the ‘cistus absolute’ coming from the whole of the plant — more green and floral.

All of the other notes here mostly enhance or softly compliment the cistus notes, with the dry down giving a bit of an earthy base to the fragrance, much like the soil it grows from. Very interesting and quite unique!

Wrapping up…

It’s pretty rare these days that I enjoy an entire line enough where I’d be happy to own them all, and I have to say D:SOL MMXVI’s releases so far have hit the mark.

There is a through-line through much of this house of creating complex, original scents but keeping them polite and buttoned-up. None of these are ‘beast mode’ trendy fragrances, instead opting for more intimate scent bubbles that encourage self-reflection and intimacy, exploring nostalgia both experienced and imagined.

Whether new to fragrance or fairly seasoned, there’s something that I think almost everyone can enjoy.

April 30 marks International Jazz Day, which I wanted to celebrate by highlighting one of my favorite hard bop tenor sax players, the great Hank Mobley. While the nickname of ‘middleweight champion’ was often misinterpreted as meaning Hank was mediocre, it mostly just referred to his playing being somewhere between the super smooth Stan Getz and more aggressive John Coltrane.

While he wasn’t fully appreciated while he was alive, in retrospect Mobley was an incredibly important figure in the late 1950s through the 1970s, especially for the Blue Note label where he was a consistent and prolific performer.

Unfortunately, like many of his contemporaries, he struggled with heroin addiction and heavy long-term smoking, both of which contributed to his early retirment in the mid-1970s due to lung problems. He struggled later in his life, dealing with homelessness and other problems before developing lung cancer and passing away from pneumonia at the terribly young age of 55.

While it’s super difficult for me to choose just three albums to highlight, I want to keep this post pretty short and sweet, so I’m going to highlight a few of my favorites.

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Soul Station (1960)

For me, Soul Station is in my personal top 10 of all time. With an all-star supporting group, Hank is at his prime here. This was one of the earliest jazz albums I ever added to my collection and is a big reason why I fell in love with the genre.

For the most part, the album is fairly upbeat with no real slow, sultry ballads here. It’s a perfect sunny afternoon album to listen to while having lunch outside.

I won’t wax poetic too much about this one, and let the music speak for itself. I highly recommend listening to the entire album, but here is just one track.

A Caddy For Daddy (1966)

Again, Hank is joined by an all-star ensemble, producing a pretty fun, distinctly mid-late 1960s album with a few originals and a Wayne Shorter track (Venus Di Mildew - this name always cracked me up). The album is best known for it’s very distinctive title track, which is below.

Thinking of Home (1980)

This album was originally recorded in 1970, but languished due to the de facto death of the label in the early 1970s until it’s sale and revival in the early-mid 1980s. By the time this album was released, Mobley was already retired from playing, and not in a great place personally. This was the second of a handful of albums released ‘late,’ including Poppin, Curtain Call, Straight No Filter, and more — all recorded decades earlier and not released.

This album is especially notable for the opening suite — the only one he ever recorded (as far as I am aware).

Hopefully these serve as a nice introduction to those unfamiliar with Hank Mobley! I strongly encourage listening to his discography as you have a chance, as a BIG part of the ‘Blue Note sound’ was really just Hank and his albums (you can also find him playing on many other albums where he isn’t leader).

How did you ‘celebrate’ International Jazz day? What did you listen to? I’d love to hear!

While I was attempting not to buy any more fragrances for a while, Stéle had other plans and dropped a refresh of their inventory for the spring, launching 100 new fragrances from many indie/niche brands from around the world, including many that are available exclusively from them in the US and quite a few that I’ve been wanting to try for some time.

So, I reluctantly whipped out the ol’ card and picked out a selection of things to try + a bottle that I have been after for the better part of the past year. I’ll give a quick rundown of the samples and full bottle below!

Important Note: I am not affilitated with Stéle or any of the brands mentioned below. Everything was purchased with my own money and all opinions are my own.

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For the past year, I’ve had ‘Forlorn Embers & Black Reigns’ on my radar for a full bottle pickup, but the small house is fairly consistently out of stock, with only limited supply released occasionally through a few vendors and their official website. Seeing this one available was an immediate buy, despite the fairly high price tag on this one.

The scent is super comforting and will be something I reach for in the fall/winter seasons. Marshmallow, marron glace/chestnut, walnut, tobacco, bourbon, and other notes come together to make this slightly sweet, quite nutty, and woody creation. I’d probably lump this in a similar category as Zoologist Chipmunk or By The Fireplace from Maison Margiela, but I prefer the Toskovot most of all.

Also, out of the many, many fragrances I’ve purchased, the unboxing and presentation of this Toskovat is up there with the best. Unfortunately, it is sold out for now, but I am very grateful to have finally had an opportunity to pick it up!

The samples all arrived in this nice branded bag as well as a little handwritten note on the back of the card. Nice touches! I’ve ordered from most of the major B&M shops in the US online, and the packaging from Stéle has been the most premium feeling to me so far. While ultimately it’s about the fragrances, little touches like this do make a difference!

Anyway, I picked up 18 samples and spent quite some time going through them all. I’m not going to rehash them ALL here, but want to mention my stand-outs from the group, including a few that I plan on buying eventually and some I found super interesting but that aren’t really for me.

My Top Picks:

1. Tesoro from D: SOL MMXVI - a breezy, herbal citrus with airy woods and leather at the base. This smells like the wind through a citrus grove, and is somehow cool and crisp, yet warm and radiant. I find this one intoxicating and for some reason a bit challenging to describe accurately but I will be buying a full bottle.

2. Winter in Manaslu from Hima Jomo - this opens with a burst of fresh peppermint leaves, complete with the green, herbal freshness that comes with plucking a fresh leaf off the plant. Some of this herbal freshness may be coming from the basil in the opening as well. This brought back memories if pulling leaves off my peppermint bushes and chewing on them fresh, or bringing in to make fresh peppermint tea. Smelling my hands, the combination of the distinct peppermint oil smell and the green plant freshness is replicated very nicely here. In the drydown, the conifers and sage shine through a bit more, making this feel a bit ‘cold.’ To me, this is the wintery foil to Mantes La Jolie, which was an instant-buy the first time I sampled it, and smells like spring/summer in the garden.

3. Star trails from Voyag3r - One of the best cola-forward fragrances I’ve smelled. This one opens with a burst of vanilla coke with a squeeze of lime, with a dry down that amps up the spices and almost takes it in a Dr. Pepper direction. There’s even a few minor floral notes mixed in, but they’re very nicely blended. It somehow ends up fresh and not syrupy, however, making this quite a bit different than, say, Tonka Cola from Mancera. While I do enjoy TC (the effervescent opening is really special), it can dry down a little overly sweet and lack much complexity. Star Trails takes cola in a completely different direction and it’s really wonderful. I see this one replacing TC in my collection as the ‘cola of choice.’

4. Jodhpur 6 AM from L’Entropiste - I’ve followed Betrand Duchaufour for many years, and he’s been the nose behind quite a few of my favorites, so I was excited to see that he was creating his own line independently. I picked up three samples from his new house, and this one was my favorite by a fairly wide margin. While this is a floral fragrance, the tuberose here is blended very nicely with ‘chai’ — bring in a black tea, milk, cinnamon, etc accord — and apricot. The result is a very soft, creamy, and slightly bittersweet floral that is light and complex. While this still leans slightly more feminine, I would have no issues wearing this.

5. Damp from Agar Olfactory - Do you want to smell like wet dirt? This is for you. Calling all plant people. If you’ve ever been repotting a plant and the strong smell of geosmin from the damp potting soil is something you’ve wanted to have as a fragrance, this is the perfect selection. While I don’t personally want to smell like this, it’s pretty remarkable how photo-real it is. This may actually be a good layering candidate as well — maybe under a warmer incense to give it a little cool, dampness.

6. Peau from Arquiste - I have tried a handful of fragrances from this house from Architect’s Club to A Grove By The Sea, but so far none have resonated strongly enough with me. However, Peau might just be the one from this house that hits the spot. The recreation of the smell of a lover’s skin, this is a peppery, salty, musky fragrance that sits pretty close to the skin in an intimate scent bubble. Whereas some indie ‘sultry’ fragrances can lean a bit too animalic or intentionally gross, this is clean, dewy skin basking in sunlight. A mirage. A memory. This is very understated, but quite beautiful. While I’ve struggled with most of the ‘your skin but better’ category of fragrances, this might be the one for me.

That’s all for now! I’ll leave readers with a question: what is a fragrance that the first time you smelled it it brought back an incredibly vivid memory?

While in some previous posts I’ve shared the merits of owning physical media, I realized I haven’t shared much from my collection here despite it being the main focus of my content on Tiktok, etc.

That being said, here is a group of recent(ish) vinyl pickups from various genres. Some of these you may recognize from other posts I have made sharing albums and others may be new!

Disclaimer: If I link to anywhere you can purchase an album, it is merely to share a source. I am not sponsored or affiliated with any linked store or platform.

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The Roy Hargrove Quintet - Earfood (2008)

Originally released in 2008, Earfood is one of my favorite albums from Roy Hargrove and has *never* been issued in vinyl until just now with the release of this Japanese pressing. While this 2-LP gatefold will run you a pretty penny should you decide to pick it up, it’s well worth the cost! ‘Strasbourg/St. Denis’ and ‘Speak Low’ are two highlights I recommend listening to. This album is included in my shortlist of ‘testing’ music to test any sort of changes or tweaks I make with my system. Fantastically well-recorded.

I got my copy from Juno Records in the UK since I could not find a US-based retailer that had any for sale. Juno records is currently out of stock, however. For US buyers, expect to pay around $90-100 for the album including shipping (steep, I know).

The Circling Sun - Spirits (2023)

I recently posted about this (a little over a week ago) and surprisingly the record arrived quite quickly from the UK as I ordered it directly from the label via Bandcamp. Note: If purchasing via Bandcamp, you’ll also get the option to digitally download the album in whatever format you prefer — including various lossless/HiRes file types. Nice redundancy and have permanent access to the digital files no matter the album’s status on streaming platforms.

I won’t go into too too much detail about the album besides I highly recommend it! I’ll share a specific track this time vs the entire album stream (can listen to it in full on youtube for no charge, or it’s on streaming services if you subscribe to one).

Concord Super Band - Concord Super Band II (1980)

Recorded live in Japan in 1979, the band consisted of a group of musicians from the Concord records roster at the time and focused mostly on standards. This album was never released on CD and is not available digitally (that I can track down - not even on youtube), but can be found used in minty condition for relatively little money — my copy cost me less than $25 including shipping from Discogs and is virtually brand new. I am a fan of Scott Hamilton, so I was intrigued by the album and picked it up. There is a really nice version of ‘Just Friends’ among other nice takes.

While I wouldn’t necessarily call this ‘essential listening,’ if you come across a nice copy for ~$20 it’s well worth the purchase!

Jack Wilson - Easterly Winds (1967)

2023 saw the reissue of Easterly Winds as part of the Tone Poet series with Blue Note. While I personally have stopped purchasing new reissues from BN after their very unfortunate choices regarding a subscription service and tier-locked availability of some ‘exclusive’ titles that runs completely opposite the stated goal of the TP and Classics series (to make these titles accessible to all), I got this in a trade for another album I had a duplicate of.

Anyway, the lineup here is really stellar and the overall pace and mood of the album is fairly high energy hard bop with a little dash of soul-jazz here and there. While I’m a sucker for a beautiful ballad, the more upbeat tracks on this album are definitely my favorites. A solid album from start to finish, however!

The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble - Gemini (2025)

While I mentioned this one back in early March, I just recently received my vinyl copy. I really enjoy this soul/funk group. For some reason, they remind me of if Zero 7 and Budos Band had a love child.

In honor of the just-recently-passed Earth Day, here is ‘Mother Earth’ from the album.

Masako Ohta & Matthias Lindermeyr - Nozomi (2025)

I mentioned this album in my somewhat-controversial ‘Jazz Ain’t Dead’ post back in February and patiently awaited the vinyl to arrive. This was an interesting package since the photo is only attached with a small paperclip and the white paper is effectively a large OBI and booklet rolled into one. A pretty interesting presentation but a bit irritating to get into a sleeve!

This is a very pensive album — great if you are in need of a calming music experience that values moments of silence and stillness as much as the music. Meditative!

Oblique Occasions - Leviathan (parts I and II combined) (2025)

The rest of my albums being featured here today are going to be in the vaporwave/barber beats genres as I got a big delivery of a bunch of pre-orders from mid last year. For those unaware, much of the barber beats is a sub-genre in vaporwave (already somewhat notorious for plundered samples), though sometimes these can be entire songs that are slowed down and/chopped up, etc. While there are questional ethics around this (and legality, frankly), I typically find a lot of it relaxing (or fun).

For this genre, due to the nature of them they are not available on streaming services, and frequently end up taken down on Bandcamp as well. They feel almost like modern-day unauthorized DJ remixes and such.

I’m going to mostly rapid-fire these off though, since there’s not a whole lot to say about them!

Oblique Occasions - Solipsism (2025)

Another from OO, this album as a whole is a bit more laid back.

Oblique Occasions - Guile (2025)

Another from OO, this is one that has quite a few very blatant just slowed down tracks, but it’s pretty fun nonetheless!

Macroblank - 肉と魂 (2025)

MB is a pretty prominent and highly prolific Barber Beats moniker that has had to deal with various platform bans and such, but still quietly releases music. The vinyl releases for MB are often pretty limited runs (sub-500 copies, usually 300-450 these days).

Macroblank - Hooligan Mix (2025)

This release is a mix that only breaks to switch sides. Macroblank illustrates an ability to curate and weave songs together that otherwise might not work with some clever reworking, and does a great job creating an overall ‘vibe’ that tends to meander between hip-hop, trip-hop, and occasionally dashes of jazz.

Here’s the entire album (both sides) on youtube:

Have you picked up any records (or CDs or otherwise) this year? If so, what have been some of your favorite pickups?