This is a project for the fragrance brand, ‘J-Scent’ with its Japanese motifs,
that seeks to capture the essence of something invisible: fragrance.
Immerse yourself in the world of J-Scent through Japanese culture and art
that knows no bounds and that reverberates with all five senses.
The first project is a music video world created by omoimegurasu,
an artist who also worked on J-Scent’s web design.
Video created by You of omoimegurasu.
Using a kyo-sensu (Kyoto paper fan) scented with Black Leather, a Japanese ambience is created.
Using J-Scent’s ‘Black Leather’ as inspiration,
omoimegurasu wrote a new song.
*Spotify is a digital streaming service
When you download the Spotify app, you can listen to the playlist’s full version.
[Platforms] iTunes Store, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Prime Music, Amazon music unlimited, Google Play Music etc.
Creating a song from a fragrance was a first for omoimegurasu, but we made new discoveries in the connection between sound and scent, and so it was a valuable experience.
The mysterious and smoky allure of ‘Black Leather’ was reimagined through Yu’s low and scratchy vocals mixed with the deep echoing reverb effects.
From there, the changing kick and bass gradually built up the elegance and sheen.
The jacket design was produced using these concepts of creating the music and putting them into a concrete image.
The world of ‘Black Leather’ created by the duo of omoimegurasu.
We asked them to look back at this experimental project which tries to represent “fragrance” through music and video.
As producers and artists, what was it like for these two to work on this project?
What processes did they go through to bring “Black Leather” to completion?
J-Scent
Opening with leather top-notes laced with hints of bergamot, this scent is filled with romance from the black leather touch that gives a sense of melancholy, to the unexpectedly captivating sexy nuances of jasmine flower and the lingering scent of smoke.
Top Notes : Leather, Bergamot
Middle Notes : Tobacco, Jasmine
Last Notes : Oakmoss, Amber, Musk, Vanilla
Received the Best New Niche Fragrance for "Pure Beauty global awards 2019" sponsored by the UK publishing company HPCi media.
For the detail
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Nanri：We wanted to create something that would convey the ‘flow of air’ that your body feels when you smell a fragrance.
To create the breadth and echoing of sound, we used an effect called reverb. We would carefully adjust each instrument to bring about just the right stretch of sound, depth of echo, and size of space, so that it would eventually become the closest thing to what I felt when I smelled this fragrance.
Nanri：omoimegurasu often uses sounds from around us. Like the sound of a ventilation fan, or paper tearing, or the sound of a pencil writing.
With “Black Leather,” you can hear an intermittent ticking from left to right near the end of the song, and that was made from recording the buzzing sound that occurs when you pull the jack cable out of an electric guitar.
We took those sound waves and chopped them up and rearranged them.
Using sounds that aren’t made from musical instruments is what makes music arrangement interesting.
Nanri：We wanted to represent the sophisticated mystery of the last note through the bluish purple that envelops the purple tobacco smoke that is the middle note, which hangs in the air behind the leather top note.
Nanri：Because the fragrance is unisex, I decided against using bright red lipstick.
I used darker colors and lighting than usual to make it more bewitching, and tried to really be conscious of the feel of the skin of a Japanese man and woman.
ナンリ：楽曲に関しては、サウンドの原型はすぐに決まりましたが、トップノートからラストノートまでの香りのストーリー性を音で表現したかったので、そこから何度も立ち返ってブラッシュアップ作業を行いました。
祐：映像はやりたい事を詰め込めたので、全く苦労していません(笑)
祐：自分たちで思っていた以上に多くの方から「香水とのタイアップが似合う」と反響頂きました。
祐：今回は「香水とタイアップ！？」という見慣れない見出しだったので、SNSではファンの方だけでなくアーティスト仲間や映像関係者も拡散してくれて有り難く思います。インディーズで活動していると自分たち発信のニュースやお知らせがいつも同じ様な物ばかりになり、ファンの方も共演者も驚く事が少ないので。今回の企画は「！？」という気持ちになったと思います。
祐：一般的に、一曲を表に出すにはアーティスト以外に沢山の人が関わります。MVやグッズなどを含めたら、更に沢山です。私たちはそれらをほぼ2人で行います。制作の責任や保証をしてくれる人がいない事で、逆に、私たちは最大限自由に表現できるようになりました。 2人のみでアイデア出し、コンセプトを決め、Goを出す。そこに止める人がいない状態は時に「エゴ」と呼ばれますが、「omoimegurasuとしての表現の純度」が最高値であるという褒め言葉として取ることにしました。
