Jacques Kuba Séguin: La Trilogie des Odeurs

Are perfumes composed? Do they evolve? Polish-Canadian trumpeter and composer Jacques Kuba Séguin says they do, emphatically, with his La Trilogie des Odeurs: Three Works, Three Universes, One Story.

In presenting an olfactory world via an auditory work of art, there is a sense that Séguin is taking things well beyond just perfume to an entire world of odors. It also suggests an entanglement of the senses, and Séguin pushes this suggestion to the max with this trilogy in three separate albums. For Parfum no. 1, he convenes a jazz quartet with pianist Jean-Michel Pilc, bassist Rémi-Jean Leblanc, drummer Kevin Warren, with vocalist Elizabeth Shepherd sitting in on one tune. Leave the connection of odor to sound to the listener here. Synesthesia—where the stimulation of one sense triggers experiences in another—is a real thing. Pianist Jessica Williams said she saw colors with every note or chord she played.

Of the three Parfum albums, No. 1, 2 and 3, Parfum no. 1 is the starkest—a spare, dry sound that may evoke the smell of desert sage as it rides the Santa Ana winds through the chaparral, picking up molecules of the menthol eucalyptus that flourishes in the riverbeds, the rich aromas of damp earth from which these craggy apparitions writhe. 

There is much space here, like that desert landscape that birthed the sage. Melodic simplicity and repetition make the music sound ritualistic in a beautiful way. Elizabeth Shepherd's vocals (invocations?) in French are hushed whisperings on "Je suis là." 

The music is expressed with an understated patience, as it was in Miles Davis' Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Fontana, 1957). It is an inward sound that invites reflection and contemplation.

The three albums as a whole are described as a trilogy of smells celebrating the olfactory memories of our lives. This, in itself, marks out ambitious territory via three distinct albums—Parfum no. 1 utilizing the jazz quartet; Parfum no 2 employing a 17-piece jazz band; and Parfum no. 3 bringing in a symphony orchestra, taking the ambitious aspect off the charts.

The olfactory experiences described, auditorily, on Parfum no. 1 are subtle, whiffs of mixed fragrances. Parfum no. 2, the big band set, brings in a riot of bright smells, with brassy primary colors underlain by understated pastel scents and rainbow swirls of harmonic whirlpoolings. Scents and sounds, with their ability to appeal to ephemeral memories in the subconscious yet formative aspects of our life histories, emerge through open-ear listening.

The final chapter, Parfum no. 3 enfolds the jazz quartet with L'Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières, led by Alain Trudel. Séguin speaks of: "Base notes, or earth notes...the essence of the perfume, the part that clings to the skin and remains imprinted in objects as well as in the soul." While the first chapter of this trilogy speaks to a simplicity of expression and the elementary, youthful experience of the fragrance, Parfum no. 3 takes that early introduction into the complexities of understanding born of time and wisdom into a richer and more complex landscape. It is an illuminating listening experience, seven compositions that intertwine and respond to each other with the angelic symphonic wings of the orchestra.