Pathetique
O'Driù (2014)

A mixed sweetness at first. A mysterious sweet. There is a vague waxiness. An old, earthy soil note underneath - must be the truffle. I get a holiday candle accord. A great, expensive candle smell. The sweetness morphs into a delightful incense smell. Mimosa is present. It is a happy note. It's smile inducing. Nothing pathetic, here.

This continually moves in a positive direction. That waxiness begins to verge towards a starch accord. This fragrance seems to become daintier as it moves on. Sweetness changes, moves into a light honey. Pathetique seems to take on an ethereal floral feel. I thought I'd get more of a woodsy-forest flavor, but I do not.

In fresh air, outdoors, I get more hints of earth and juniper. I smell vanilla throughout, even though it isn't listed as a note... A sweet, woody aroma lingers on for hours. Nice!

I didn't do any analyzing of this fragrance at all. I tried directly on skin from a shared sample vial, and all I thought was "MORE."

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! Warm, woody, smoky, sweet; even though there's no vanilla or chocolate in this, that's what I get – a rich, creamy, smoky chocolate, with the black pepper giving it a kick of heat. The longevity is quite frankly amazing – I put this on at eight in the morning and I could still smell it, clearly, well over twelve hours later, and that was from just one spray. I love how this evolved over the day – that spicy, smoky, chocolaty note became more pronounced as the day wore on, not in an in-your-face way, but rather like sitting in front of the fireplace, with a nice big mug of spiced hot chocolate, and inhaling the fragrant steam. I love it, and given the longevity, I would seriously consider a full bottle at some stage. Thanks to purecaramel for the sample!

Pathetique is one of the most dry and foward criticism of Angelo to the perfume industry as the name says it all. It's a mock of what marketing has become in the perfume industry, with all the perfume dinasties, fancy imaginary materials and fake royalty histories. The way the name is written on the bottle and it's described shows that this intentions here are ones of bringing back (or bringing for the first time) the ethical path to perfumery again (path etique).

This certainly works because of the wonderful and sensual scent that unfolds on skin. It is for me one of the sunniest moments in Angelo's work as a whole. The languid impression that i feel on Satyricon base is the mood here overall, like a kind of feline enjoying the spot of sun in the middle of the afternoon. It opens with a beautiful honey flower impression that is set against of a quite coconut woody aroma - this is certainly an effect gave by a proeminent use of amyris wood, which has in itself this woody coconut sensation. Then you get a green berry-like aroma that is contrasted with something slightly aldehydic and woody and at this moment i feel like Satyricon is channeling a compact shape of Givenchy masterpiece Insensee. It settles down to a cozy and slightly incensy woody base that lingers on skin with very subtle sweet tones. Overall, it's a fragrance that gives me a relaxing and honest experience. The path is simple: do very good fragrances that speak for itself. They don't need to please everyone with generic marketing ploys, they just need to be genuine and well orchestrated. That this has to be reinforced at this moment of the game it's what is really pathetic in the perfume industry.

This reminds me of Serge Lutens Chergui, and I was on the fence between neutral and like with that one before the sweet, long-lasting base won me over. Pathetique is similar in having a challenging, unfamiliar-as-a-perfume opening that I could grow to appreciate. It is interesting to wear, but not quite for me.

Pathetique unexpectedly blows my old synapses as one of the absolutely best Pregoni's eccentric creations. Honestly a great surprise that anyway just confirms the Angelo Orazio's (by many of us yet well known) immense olfactory talent. Previously a praising word over all the others: uniqueness, yes, a rare quality, veritable peculiarity. Honestly I've never tested on skin something really close to this elusive stuff and while my interconnective nose enjoys playing the game of connections I can't seriously pick up a juice really-really similar to O'Driu' Pathetique. Second, I catch in here a remarkable "detachment/departure" from the classic O'driuesque vegetal-culinary (basically visceral, rural) "apparatus" since I get in here something far more modern, velvety, refined/silky, lounge/ambient and kind of fancy-chic. The juice starts by soon less bitter-sparkling (than usual for the brand) and more silky, something immediately more approachable and wearable (and it does not mean at all banal, synthetic or simplistic). I could find out vague (but really vague, somewhat evanescent) points in common with scents a la Slumberhouse Ore, Tom Ford Noir de Noir (the previously mentioned scents being the ones more "relatively" closely conjuring me Pathetique), Cacharel Nemo, the sharper Parfumerie Generale Aomassai 10, several Histoires de Parfums or Parfum d'Empire Cuir Ottoman (considered in particular scant moments of its run) but Pathetique is something basically diverse and I frankly find quite hard picking up around the right words to fully describe its dodgy substance and the main shades of the final aroma. First of all this creative stuff is a semi-gourmand with buttery-leathery (kind of simil suedish) and gassy molecules imo. What does the juice seem smelling like? Well, frankly I get a musky-resinous (the base) accord of (ostensible) powdery iris (or stuffs like that), vegetal mold (mushrooms??), slightly buttery cocoa, pepper/nutmeg, frankincense, smooth vetiver, suede, wax and something bitter/herbal/licoricey (could it be the note of amyris??). Anyway, probably the officially listed notes are just partial or incomplete since I can't stop catching the overmentioned "presences" on skin. The juice starts kind of liquorous, spicy, incensey and leathery. Opening is pure heaven, you can catch by soon mild piquant spices go merging with something almost buttery, mossy and darkly dusty (kind of cocoa conjuring). I get woods, powdery floral notes, something bitter-earthy and a final wave of silky suede and oakmoss. This modern mystical approach hides a more classic woodsy-ambery-aromatic (warmly chypre, subtle, refined and classic/distinguished) dry down. The balance is superb, also the more "molecular" opening is anyway "well measured" and tamed. The inebriating hypnotic dustiness (pepper, piquant sweet spices, kind of powdered sugar and frankincense) is always on this side of the fence and the silky-fancy dry down is quite dry (almost poudre) and softly talky (in a darkly woody/amberish way). The general atmosphere is quite elusive, bright/dark (chiaroscuro), vaguely gassy and "transfigured". A devilish sleight of hand by Angelo Orazio Pregoni, an aroma's illusionist, an alchemical wizard, a real painter in perfumery (one of the very few in the niche section), a profoundely struggling soul which expresses itself far better by manipulating aromatic notes than by useless words (respectfully, yes, since words are useless if you are such a talented creator). Keep on inebriating us Angelo and let your creations telling everything.