– Escentric Molecules started with a molecule created ex nihilo in a lab, and actually called Molecule 01. My job is to create the visual world of Escentric, and the image of some glamorous babe or dude did not spring to mind as the expression of that. Sounds obvious, but a lot of fragrance packaging out there has nothing to do with what’s in the bottle. It’s more about stamping a corporate identity across everything.

– We work the opposite way. We start with what’s inside. For our new fragrances, Escentric Molecules 04, we looked at the odour profile of Javanol, the molecule at the heart of it. It smells like a softer, sheerer sandalwood, so we used a gold mirri substrate to resonate with sandalwood’s warmth. For Escentric 04 we picked up on the big pink grapefruit note, and there’s also a little Indian connection in the colour palette of pink and gold.

Molecule 04 is probably the first fragrance bottle inspired by the Large Hadron Collider.

– We also look at how the world out there connects with what’s inside the bottle. Molecule 04 is probably the first fragrance bottle inspired by the Large Hadron Collider. I guess the search for the Higgs Boson is probably never gonna be the inspiration for, say, the new Dior fragrance. But why not get excited by the biggest scientific adventure of our time? The radial lines on the bottle and packaging for M04 pay homage to the images of sub-atomic collisions in the particle accelerator. Those images are just so beautiful.

– For me, the Collider connects to the molecular engineering that gave us Javanol, the molecule in M04. They are both expressions of the super-scientific modernity we live in. So in the Collider, physicists are smashing atoms to see what sub-atomic particles are created. While at Givaudan the chemists are snipping and adding atoms to molecules like Javanol to tune their aroma with micro-precision.

I wanted to enrich Escentric’s visual DNA for our new online store.

– I and my team work on the fragrances the way I used to design album covers. Back then at Me Company, we would play around, searching for a narrative in the music to feed the design. When Bjork recorded her Post album for example, she was living away from her home in Iceland and had to communicate with her family and friends through postcards. The idea of the postcard had an emotional energy for her, so for the album cover we picked up on that. We made a collage of cards, dragged them all together and hung them like a string of lanterns behind her head.

– It’s all about synaesthesia, so you can almost visualise the fragrance when you look at the box, and smell the design when you spray it. We try to make this work at every level. So for example, the molecule for 01, Iso E Super, has an arcane aspect to it, due to the way it vanishes from your skin and then re-appears hours later. The double blacks we use in the packaging for M01 express this darkness around the molecule, its utter mystery.

– I wanted to enrich the visual DNA of Escentric for our new online store. So we’ve developed the ‘art & chemistry’ aesthetic, taking the binary and molecular graphics in a really abstract direction for the boxes the scents will be delivered in. We want to make shopping at our store the best experience you could ever have of buying the fragrance. The moment the box is handed to you, you’re in touch with the alt universe of Escentric Molecules. What’s hitting your eye should resonate with the olfactory molecules that will soon be buzzing in your brain.

– Project Renegades, who they? Three buddies, Geza Schoen, Mark Buxton, and Bertrand Duchaufour, classically-trained perfumers who have busted out of the mainstream to cook up hell-raisin’ fragrances a million miles wide of the usual commercial constraints.

– Where they at? Geza is Escentric Molecules – nuff said. Mark is the perfumer most associated with Comme des Garçons, and he has his own out-there brand to boot. Plus the dude wears a string of pearls, cowboy boots and a Homburg. On weekdays. Bertrand is the niche brands’ go-to guy, he’s done stuff for Comme, as well as crazy-good smells for The Different Company, Acqua di Parma and L’Artisan Parfumeur.

renegade /ˈrɛnɪɡeɪd/ – a person who deserts an organization, country. archaic a person who abandons religion; an apostate. Renegades and Deserters of Heaven, who renounce their God for the Favour of Man. – a person who behaves in a rebelliously unconventional manner.

– What they about? Kicking back and having fun. Giving the finger to the industry. Sticking avatar mini-sculptures of themselves on the front of their fragrances - avatars that detach to become fridge magnets.

– Fridge magnets? Yup. This is the world’s first ‘fragrance + fridge magnet’ concept. Are fridge magnets cool? Do we care? They’re fridge magnets!

Think Kinder Egg meets Timothy Leary by way of Jesse James

– These are no ordinary fridge magnets. The way this band of bros sees things, they are running amok as mixologist cowboys in a Wild West spooling out from their own kaleidoscopic imaginations. Which translates to mean: Geza’s avatar has Colt pistols for ears and silver bullets for teeth; Mark sports a Stetson transmogrifying into a peyote cactus; while Bertrand wears a mean-toothed rattler for a hat. Think Kinder Egg meets Timothy Leary by way of Jesse James.

– These avatars inhabit their own maxxed-out world. These dudes don’t just have fragrances, they don’t just have kinder-magnet-heads, they have an otherworld that their avatars run amok in. You can follow their serial adventures as they flee from bland corporate Consumador into the phantasmagoric universe of Panosmia, one nail-biting episode at a time on the Renegades website.

“Geza had this idea for a wild ride. He got together with his mates and we took off with it.”

– And the juice? Lets not be modest here. The fragrances are awesome. The reason is simple: without focus groups to keep things bland, the gang could create way outside of convention. Without cost constraints, they could use the materials they wanted at the concentration they wanted. The result is three auteur fragrances, each with a high proportion of the luxe naturals that have been priced-out of so-called ‘luxury’ fragrances.

– So lets hear it from the dudes themselves: Bertrand: “Geza had this aberrant idea for a wild ride. He got together with his mates and we just took off with it.” Mark: “We three have been the outlaws of the fragrance world for 20 years. This is our chance to really blow your mind.” Geza: “Yee haw!”

Project Renegades – raisin’ hell now at www.projectrenegades.store in the UK.

– How do trolls smell without perfume?

UGH: Troll smell troll!!!! Like Bõögâr troll, like Ugh troll, like mama troll, like uncle troll...
BÕÖGÂR: Human smell food!
Egill (Sæbjörnsson, an artist who translates for the trolls): Yeah... so there you go... they are saying that trolls smell like trolls and Ugh & Bõögâr like the smell of humans... The smell of humans for them is like the smell of French fries or coffee for us.

Larry Gagosian was visiting because he had heard about the trolls...

– What kind of perfume are you cooking up with Geza?

UGH: Troll make perfume put humans, volcano, moaner liser, Porrock, Glarry, car... many car... humans...
BÕÖGÂR: Boogar pee in perfume!!!!!!
UGH: BÕÖGÂR NOT PEE! NOT GOOD! BÕÖGÂR NOT PEE IN PERFUME!
Egill: Well, they put a lot of typical ingredients. They put the Mona Lisa. The Louvre in Paris doesn’t know it, but we replaced it with one of Gelitin’s Mona Lisas and the guard is short-sighted. Then one day Larry Gagosian was visiting because he had heard about the trolls and he was interested in meeting them. That ended terribly. He was going all the way to the troll pot that was standing in the middle of the floor, and he stuck his nose in to smell it and then Bõögar just pushed him in. So Larry is in it. They also put whale puke in the perfume, which is an ingredient Geza showed them, and they also put cars for experimentation. I mean Geza told me that their sense for putting weird things together is amazing. He said that he almost didn’t have to do anything.

Sorry to tell you this but if you wear Molecule 01 you are more likely to be eaten by trolls

– Have either of you ever tried any of Geza's Escentric Molecule fragrances on a hot troll date?

UGH: I never go date, Bõögaâr not allow me.
BÕÖGÂR: Not true Ugh. You don’t know use Tinder.
UGH: Tinder is for eat people, for troll not good to go date.
BÕÖGÂR: There is Troll Tinder too.
UGH: YES? What called?
BÕÖGÂR: Trönder!
Egill: They have never tried Geza’s Escentric Molecules, although I have noticed that they do get attracted to people that wear it. But their attraction is about eating those people... in other words, sorry to tell you this, but if you use Molecule 01 you are more likely to be eaten by trolls.

– Are you two planning to eat Geza at the end of this project?

UGH: Bõögar not eat Geza!!!!
BÕÖGÂR: Bõögâr EAT Geza!!!
UGH: Bõögâr NOT eat Geza!!!!!!
BÕÖGÂR: Bõögâr EAAAAT GezAAAA!!!!
UGH: Bõöõöõögaâr NOOOOOOOOT eat Geza!!!!!!
BÕÖGÂR: Bõögâr EAT GEZA NOW!!!!!!!!!

Egill: STOP STOP STOP GUYS! This is not the time to fight over this. Bõögâr is a bit short-sighted and doesn’t understand that if he eats Geza, there will be no one else to help them making proper perfume.

BÕÖGÂR: TROLL HUNGRY
UGH: TROLL EAT CHINESE TOURIST NOT GEZA!
BÕÖGÂR: TROLL GET TROLL EAT!
UGH: BÕÖGÂR, DON’T EAT GEZA TODAY OK! IF YOU EAT GEZA TODAY, EGILL NO MORE MAKE ART WITH US! OK!

[silence...]

BÕÖGÂR: OK OK... I EAT GEZA TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!

‘Out of Controll in Venice’, Icelandic Pavilion, Venice Biennale 57th International Art Exhibition – till 26 November. Follow the trolls on Instagram @icelandicpavilion #outofcontroll

Geza’s fragrance with Ugh & Bõögâr is on sale at the pavilion, together with troll kaka and other specialist troll souvenirs.

– Since 2000 there has been a real sub-culture in fragrance, with new types of perfumers, new concepts, new molecules, new accords. Until now, these stories have been discussed as part of a niche scene. Yet it’s no longer niche. It has begun to merge with the mainstream in a process you could call incorporation or appropriation, or maybe something else. The emergence of this new fragrance culture is exactly the kind of phenomenon that Somerset House are interested in illuminating.

It's not often that a perfume breaks out into cultural discourse like Molecule 01.

– We decided to do it through exploring ten seminal perfumes that show how perfume has changed in the past fifteen years. Some have a cult following, others are there because they are particularly important to the perfumer (like Purple Rain for Daniela Andrier), or because they present a radical or rebellious direction (like Dark Ride). We want to highlight milestone scents that confound expectations of what fragrance can be.

– Molecule 01 is essential to this exhibition. It's not often that a perfume breaks out into cultural discourse like this one. Maybe two or three per decade achieve that level of awareness and controversy.

– Each fragrance in the exhibition is presented in its own immersive space. I don't want to spoil it by saying any more. I would rather people come and see it for themselves. What I can say is that Molecule 01 is the most talked about, totemic perfume in the exhibition and the design of the space reflects its status and the way it is fetishised.

– Exhibitions are usually overwhelmingly visual. You're looking, looking, looking. But with this experience, the focus is on smelling, the voice of the perfumery, and to some extent tactile experiences. I think we've created a more contemplative experience, and also space to be aware of your body as you sample the scent. Each room reveals the energy of a particular scent. Some rooms are more passive, others more active.

Molecule 01 is the most talked about, totemic perfume in the exhibition and the design of the space reflects the way it is fetishised.

– I think there will be lots of buzz around the laboratory we have set up at the show. Here visitors can watch demos, sample aroma-chemicals, and have the opportunity to meet perfumers. As a curator, my personal highlight has been seeing how the designers at MUF have created furniture for each perfume. Very exciting!

– The future of fragrance is a hot topic right now and on 29th June, we are hosting , “Fragrance Futures’. Geza is part of the panel together with Charles Spence, Professor of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University and Timothy Han, who explores the relationship between sound and smell. No idea what they will talk about but my own view on the future of fragrance is that we’re going to move from new olfactory concepts (unusual styles, new molecules) to new contexts – where scent plays a much bigger role in art. So perhaps less about what we smell, and more about how we smell.

Perfume: A Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent at Somerset House, 21st June – 17th September. Find out more here: www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/perfume

– By the nineties, natural sandalwood oil had become unsustainable to harvest and incredibly expensive. The big flavour & fragrance companies were all looking for a new molecule to use instead. It was kind of a sandalwood arms race.

– There were already several good sandalwood molecules out there. At Givaudan we had Sandela, Radjanol and Ebanol, all with slightly different fragrance profiles. IFF had Bacdanol, Sanjinol and Santaliff, Kao had Santal Mysore Core, Symrise had Brahmanol, Sandel 80 and Sandranol, and Firmenich had found a very successful one, Polysantol.

– Then in 1996 someone came up with Javanol and the sandalwood race was pretty much over. Not because the other sandalwoods were superseded. They weren’t. There is room for variations here. But Javanol turned out to be the best fit for the receptors in your nose that code for sandalwood. The more perfectly the sandalwood ‘foot’ fits the receptor’s ‘shoe’, the more intense the smell will be. Javanol proved to be the sandalwood Cinderella the chemists were looking for.

– There are some 400 odorant receptors in the human nose. While there will always be one perfect fit for each receptor, the receptor pockets are broadly tuned to accept a more general shape. Any odour-molecule is always fairly flexible and therefore hops between different receptors. It’s like a maxxed-out version of those toys where kids have to put the square shape in the square hole, the star shape in the star hole, but where the toys are made of rubber so you can squeeze a star-shaped one into a square hole; though it will pop out again pretty fast.

Javanol proved to be the sandalwood Cinderella the chemists were looking for.

– Here comes the science bit. The person who discovered Javanol back in ’96 was Jerzy Bajgrowicz, a chemist working here at Givaudan. One of the things he did was to substitute the double bond in a part of the molecule called the ‘spacer’ with a cyclopropane ring. This three-membered ring maintains the electronic properties and rigidity of the double bond but improves on the hydrophobicity, so making Javanol a near-perfect fit for the sandalwood receptor pockets in the nose.

– The bonds in the ring are bent like bananas, which makes the electrons sort of pop out. This provides electron density, which is important because what the receptor in the nose ‘sees’ is not just the silhouette of the molecule, but its electronic shape. This electronic shape orientates and then binds a molecule in a particular direction, depending on where its electrons are concentrated. It’s similar to a magnet, which has two poles, a positive and a negative. So how well the molecule fits the receptor pocket is down to where the electrons are concentrated, as well as its overall shape.

What the receptor in the nose ‘sees’ is not just the silhouette of the molecule, but its electronic shape.

– Scent is a language, which is just to say that an odorant impression is down to combinatorial coding. When one conformer shape fits into a pocket, a specific type of neuron lights up, linked only to that shape of pocket. You need a combination of different neurons to light up in order to enable your brain to decode a specific smell. Javanol, for example, lights up the neurons coding for sandalwood, but as it is so strong, it saturates these at low concentration, and then less specific neurons are fired, ie. for lactonic notes, rose, lily of the valley and grapefruit.

– Lab-created molecules like Javanol are sandalwood in abstraction if you like. Natural sandalwood oil is of course much more multi-faceted, it has cedary, smoky, burnt, sweaty, milky, creamy, sweet, animalic, nutty and even urinous aspects. Javanol is an abstraction of “santalness”. It has the creamy, warm, milky-rosy and clean aspects of nature’s sandalwood. It is both sexy and transparent. That's rare. Javanol pendant designed by Philip, who is also a jeweller. He suggests you might like to scent the pendant with Molecule 04. You can find it here.