Of Scents and Sentience, Summers and Savagery.
A whiff of Tuscany, a clamour of dystopia, a rush of blood.
Greetings.
A very visual, cinematic thread runs through this week’s missive, though with wildly varying moods.
Of Craft and Art: Scents blended in nature, wrapped in creative expressions.
Friday Find: Avian dystopia from Apple.
Train To Hell: Trains in India can have a reputation, but this is another level entirely.
With appearances from AI pirates, the cosmos & the metaverse (remember that?).
1. Of Craft and Art
Sam Lee is not someone I knew of. But I know now he is a British folk singer, traditional music specialist and song collector.
Claire Baise is not someone I knew of. I now know she is an acclaimed French artist who specialises in painting flowers.
Ffern is not a brand I had heard of. I now know they are makers of natural small batch perfumes, out of Somerset, England.
But first, Tuscany.
The Arezzo region. Rolling greens. A cycle. “Buongiorno”. An orange. Kids on the street. A purple flower in a breast pocket. Birds. The breeze. A sunset.
It was Ffern that introduced me to Sam and Claire (and a few others besides). Shot gorgeously on 16mm film, A Tuscan Summer is Ffern’s ‘film for this season’, accompanying its fragrance ‘Summer 24’. Captivating, enchanting, haunting- depending on which viewing it is- the film weaves through a day around Arezzo, set to the evocative sound of Sam Lee singing an old folk song steeped in nature.
To everything, there is a Season.
Ffern releases four fragrances a year, at the equinox and solstice, working with “the rhythms of the seasons”. All are organic, all are natural and all are wrapped in a very particular aesthetic. One that manifests itself in every touchpoint.
A story that manages to be authentic and luxe yet sincere, while stopping just short of being pretentious. An elegantly sparse website. Design & packaging that is evidently beautiful and entirely eco-friendly.
The content. It breathes a love for craft & expression, much like how a sense of craft is central to their process of creating fragrances. Every season, a film like this Tuscan delight is released into the ether. Separately, an artist is invited to “interpret” that season, spanning mediums and styles (oil, digital, ink, dance, poetry). Another film might share a glimpse into the artist, their work or their process. (Have a look at the lovely one-shot ‘Charleston’ on their website.)
Other short pieces build around the theme, like an endearing group of Italians in London reacting to this perfume. A podcast every month follows the changing landscape of the seasons - from the moon and the stars, to the tides and the trees.
To go through their earlier pieces (housed in a charming ‘Cinema’ on their website), is to collide with recurring themes- being close to nature ; connecting with art and artist; evocative music, often folk in its roots; and a joy that is sometimes unbridled, sometimes reserved, always human.
Outside the garden.
Luxury fragrances are not on my radar. At work or home, I am far removed from the space. The idea of selling through exclusivity is something I view (like many, but not most) with sceptical respect. So, though I may be few steps removed from Ffern’s place in the larger ecosystem, I am struck by both the style & the substance of their brand.
Much can be said about concocted exclusivity, sought after wait-lists and limited batches. And much of that means real questions with real shams. I personally do not have much time or inclination for many. Invariably, it must be the product that decides the final call in these debates. I haven’t sampled these scents, but have seen an abundance of glowing comments, and a smattering of disappointed ones across their socials and on reddit.
So I must put that aside, and feel comfortable in my cosy corner. From here it appears that Ffern hails from a place which is the opposite of transactional, disingenuous, opportunistic, immediate. When so much of what we see and consume are marked by those traits, it is both refreshing reassuring.
~ · ~
· The song is ‘Sweet Lemeny’ and no, its not released on a streaming service. Yet.
· A Film by Peter Franklyn Banks · Filmed by Sam Finney · Music by Avery Bright. Production by PAL Studios ·
· Some of Avery Bright’s work is in this playlist, and its gorgeous.
~ · ~
Addendum: I grew up with seasons, albeit urban ones. I now live without any, and have sorely missed those markers for near on two decades now. The basis of Ffern’s existence has not done much to make me feel better about that.
2. Friday Find: Flock
While Sam Lee is inspired by birds and they feature in the sounds and words of that last piece, this next take on birds is decidedly less… fond, shall we say?
Birds Aren't Real.
But safety is.
‘Flock’, with its near-future robotic flying thingies (the creative team calls them ‘camera birds’), brings a Black Mirror meets dark comedy vibe to this spot for iPhone & Safari. Menacing dystopian mechanical creatures are a reliable way to cause discomfort, then root for the device that dispels it.
There is a battle for the narrative around our online experiences (which are effectively just life experiences). One of the most hard lines many consumers draw is between operating systems and the devices they use to consume life. iOS vs Android. Apple vs the rest. At least, that is what online fandom and hullabaloo would have us believe.
Apple has spent the last couple of years convincing us that privacy and safety are the bedrock of their offering. Given the primacy of these and the increasing concerns around them (in certain societies and geographies), it is a strong platform.
You might well scoff at some of those claims, but enjoy ‘Flock’, Apple’s latest on this, directed by Ivan Zachariás.
Don’t miss the audio transition/blend when the woman screams, a thing of beauty.
But also, birds are actually not real. I discovered so this week.
Now I know.
3. Train to Hell
From meaning to mayhem! You may or may not have heard of Kill, a rip roaring Indian Hindi action film in theatres right now. It has had a bit of a wild ride around the festival circuit, premiering with a ‘people’s choice award’ at the 2023 Toronto film festival’s Midnight Madness section. It has since got some pretty great reviews for its genre- which is basically unabashedly violent, adrenaline fuelled mayhem.
Chad Stahelski, director of the scrumptious John Wick franchise, is already set to produce an English language remake for Lionsgate (probably the first Indian action flick to be adapted?).
I have yet to sample this cinematic bloodiness, but Indiewire calls it one of “one of the best pure action movies since ‘The Raid”, which I will take with a pinch of Himalayan salt, thank you very much, because I rate The Raid very highly indeed. (which reminds me, can some mainstream streamer please get The Raid into our living rooms again?! gracias). If you have not heard of The Raid, I apologise on behalf of your universe. Take a look at this (middling) trailer that only begins to do the film a tiny sliver of justice.
Where were we? Ah yes, with Kill, which is set almost entirely on a train to New Delhi (might be familiar to many of us). The idea harks back to an experience director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat had back in the 90s.
Filmmaker Nikhil Nagesh Bhat—a Bihari, of Maharashtrian ancestry—used to regularly take the ‘Bombay Junta’ Express, from his hometown, Patna, to Pune, where he was studying, then.
On one such “36-40-hour ride”, Bhat found his train stranded at a desolate spot, way off the scheduled Prayagraj, in the morning. Cops had entered the compartment.
The AC two-tier coach, next-door, had got fully looted, over the night. Danapur Cantonment neighbours Patna, which explains the number of soldiers on the train, who regretted not having known about the burglary.
The fights are courtesy India’s action veteran Parvez Sheikh and Korean Se-yeong Oh, who also managed fights on a train for Bong Joon Oh’s Snowpiercer (and this is not his first Indian film).
Take a bash at the trailer, if its your cup of chai.
Peanut Masala
(where I share stories or tidbits I find interesting)
Theoretically Media’s Tim Simmons breaks down how he made the fully AI generated short film Dead Sea, including attempting some cost comparisons between various ‘traditional’ approaches (animation, live action etc) vs a fully AI workflow. The technology and output are nowhere near that comparison, IMO, but the piece is relevant (and revealing) if you want a sense of how generative AI could (will) influence premium production at some point.
“It is absolutely true that artificial intelligence has taken marginal dollars away from investment into AR, VR and the metaverse. It has changed the narrative around the metaverse hype cycle. I do think that there’s not enough appreciation of how intertwined these topics have always been” Matthew Ball, always a fine voice on spaces around entertainment & technology, and author of the very good ‘The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything’ from 2022, speaks to where the metaverse has gone.
A look at some of the most stunning images of the cosmos, in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year shortlist.
Off for my brew, though it is perilously close to time for other beverages.