No 14 Garden Aire

Hmm, where to begin. This claims to be based upon Symphonie Fantastique. Well, symphonie fantastique it is not. I don't know if you know the story of Berlioz's landmark composition, but it is the story of a man's dark descent into obsessive insanity, and a tribute to a woman with whom Berlioz was unrequitedly in love. In the symphonie fantastique, he represents this woman with a particular short snippet/tune, or, in musical parlance, a leitmotif. The story told in the music starts out as beautiful, light hearted, idealistic love; but soon that leitmotif that represents "her" comes back in a more passionate manner, bordering on and transitioning into obsessive. This theme (called "the beloved") continues to return throughout the five movements of the symphony, in many different guises, and in the fifth movement it has become a deranged, satanic, suicidal fever dream, in which the composer sees himself at a witches sabbath and once again the theme of the beloved comes back as he sees "her" again but this time as a witch, twisted and evil and no longer the beautiful woman of his dreams. This time the theme is deranged, a parody of itself and the lovely woman it once represented... So as you can see, to represent such a work as that, a perfume would have to be incredible, to say the least. If I am to compare this to that musical work, it would have to be a part towards the beginning, where the music paints a picture of a fresh morning scene in a meadow. It's also somewhat evocative of the theme of the beloved, but at the beginning, simple and sweet, before it goes through its many evolutions and convolutions. Basically it is a bright, sour, somewhat screechy floral/citrus scent without much depth, sillage, or lasting power. Lovely for a bright spring morning, maybe picking flowers or some such innocent passtime. My ex told me it "smells like some kind of kitchen cleaner." 3/10