Angkor

Angkor is for Cambodian oud lovers who deeply understand and appreciate Cambodian oud, but who… dare I say…… want even more in their olfactory pursuit of this incredible aromatic. 

Like a jazz musician who takes a great song and deconstructs it, fleshes out the notes, and turns it into a dazzling new journey, we zoned in on the key facets of the scent of a Cambodian distillation that dates back to the same era as Kambodi 1976… and fleshed out those facets to create a scent that oozes Cambodian oud – and more.

I’ve been in the world of pure oud for so long, I began to feel this impulse to engage with the oud more directly. 

Oud doesn’t just smell complex, it is complex.

When you send good oud to a lab for molecular analysis, you’ll get a report that could list over 300 compounds. That’s insane for one aromatic! 

(That’s why when you hear people speak about smelling certain notes like vanilla in a swipe of oud, it’s because they actually smell vanilla.)

With Angkor, instead of showing off how rich and complex vintage Cambodian oud can be, I instead zoomed in closer to explore its olfactory fabric and interact with that insane network of complexity. In a way, to bring the scent to life even more.

Notes of apricot jam and cherry spread got complemented with real apricot and other matching auxiliary notes.

A certain red spiciness you couldn’t quite pinpoint got drawn out and punctuated in with real spices. 

That deeply addictive musky veneer in old Cambodian ouds – let’s layer that with proper deer musk!

The flavorful shrubs and wildflowers at the heart of a fine Cambodi – inject that heart with red jasmine and deep red champaca.

In terms of artistry, I wanted to join between the craft of composing an attar and the nu-perfumery best expressed through our Sultan Series. Here, the point is not to create fragrance that features Cambodian oud, but to take the very notes already present in its molecular structure, and subtly accentuate those notes. 

The better the oud, the more olfactory facets you have to work with and so the richer the end result will be. Likewise, the more oud you retain, the clearer and more enjoyable the auxiliary touches will be to an oud lover.

That’s why when it comes to artistic constraints, the rule with this style of perfumery is 50% oud, minimum.

So, whether you live for pure oud or prefer how oud jives in a perfume, Angkor is a 100% concentrate that bridges the world of free-form attaring and pure oud dogma in a scent that’s got all the body of premium vintage Cambodian agarwood – the rich burgundy liqueur resin that drips bittersweet medicinal strains of red cherry marmalade – adorned with a carefully curated selection of naturals to exalt the notes that most define the oud itself.

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