D.S. & DURGA / eau de parfum - radio bombay

Transistor radio hewn of sandalwood radiates ragas in the Bandra heat. Hot copper tubes warm the soft wood releasing blooms of musk, cream, peach, ambrette, coco, cedar distillates.

TOP NOTES
radiant wood
copper
cedar

HEART NOTES
sandalwood
radiant iris
boronia

BASE NOTES
balsam fir absolute
coconut musc
ambergris

D.S. & Durga scents are crafted by hand in small batches using balsams, resins, plant oils and premium perfume ingredients.

LINER NOTES 

I am interested in hypothetical scent. Not everything has a strong or readily perceivable aroma, but objects can suggest a fragrance. Light bulbs glow. Electricity courses through their metal filaments. They melt the dust on their surface emitting wisps of heat. The tubes in amplifiers have a certain aroma. When my ‘69 Fender Deluxe gets heated-up (after rip-roaring monster shredding), the back of the amp produces a hot dusty metallic grease perfume—the scent of backstage in a humid venue.

So what if there was a tube amplifier in an old radio made of sandalwood? Then the interaction of the heat would open up the pores of the wood, singing its smooth elegant fragrance - puffs of musky cedar, peach, coconut, lactones, milk.

Real sandalwood essence is perfection. I often wear it neat. It smells of India, effigies, purity, focus. Unfortunately, it has been overharvested, so perfumers don’t use the oil from Mysore anymore.

Radio Bombay is a deconstruction of the Mysore santal rebuilt from all the aspects written above. I imagine the radio sitting in a small hot shop in Bandra —the “Brooklyn” of Bombay (sorry). The heat deconstructs the oils in the wood. Ragas and Geeta Dutt tunes jangle out of its tiny speaker in the busy city. - D.S.

INGREDIENTS

Alcohol Denat., Fragrance (Parfum), Water (Aqua)

Available in 50mL

Made in New York

D.S. & Durga believes the power of scent is equal to that of sight and sound. A great perfume is a keyhole into another realm; an invisible landscape that you can enter and explore any time.

Kavi and David: David (a.k.a D.S.) is a self-taught perfumer who created his own aromatic language—a rarity in the perfume industry. Kavi (a.k.a Durga) is a trained architect who builds buildings for our scents and cities for our universe.

Each of their fumes is a rich narrative. All that they love in music, art, nature, and design told aromatically. Their scents are fragments of half-remembered myths and imaginary landscapes that invite exploration. Liner notes, playlists, images, graphics, and films expand upon the world inside the glass.