D.S. & Durga
D.S. & Durga
293 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
That violin varnish arrives with genuine bite—sharp, slightly acrid, with mahogany providing a woody anchor that keeps it from floating away into pure solvent territory. The air accord seems to create breathing room, preventing the composition from becoming stuffy or oppressive right out of the gate.
Colophony dominates entirely now, transforming the fragrance into something genuinely resinous and tactile, like holding a freshly rosined bow. Cypress lends a cool, almost minty spiciness, whilst maple wood becomes increasingly apparent, creating a warm-meets-astringent interplay that's genuinely compelling rather than merely strange for strangeness's sake.
What remains is almost monolithic—dense cedar and tree resin settling into a dry, mossy base that feels more botanical garden than forest. The fragrance becomes increasingly sparse and minimalist, fading to a whisper of wood and earth, as though the composition itself is slowly being absorbed back into the materials from which it came.
Bowmakers is an exercise in olfactory restraint, a fragrance that whispers rather than shouts. David Seth Moltz has constructed something genuinely unusual here: a woody composition that prioritises the structural materials of classical instruments over the instruments themselves. That violin varnish top note doesn't smell sweet or amber-tinged; it's acrid and slightly sharp, almost like linseed oil mixed with turpentine, immediately grounding you in a workshop rather than a concert hall.
The colophony in the heart is the star turn—this is bow rosin rendered in perfume form, and it brings a distinctive sticky-resinous quality that few fragrances dare approach. It's partnered with cypress and maple wood, creating an austere, almost medicinal greenness that prevents the composition from becoming merely another woody chypre. There's something architectural about this structure: cedar and tree resin in the base provide a solid foundation, whilst the moss adds a damp, shadowed earthiness, as though you're smelling wood that's been stored in a cool, dim space for years.
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3.8/5 (144)