Asphalt Rainbow

Asphalt Rainbow, a tribute to the creativity, spontaneity and political bravery of modern urban street art, succeeds in much the same way that its predecessor Christopher Street did: it's a high-concept, passionate, literate fragrance that, at the end of the day, smells both unique and just plain good. Drawing on the concepts of distortion, reappropriation and impermanence that inform street artists from Blek le Rat to Retna, Asphalt Rainbow takes a universally known perfume note- the rose- and puts it through an impressive bag of artists' tricks, presenting a rose that seems both unnaturally vivid but also surprisingly well-structured, as if stenciled with day-glo spraypaint. A distinct aerosol note lingers above it, and quickly a whole modern cityscape follows- damp pavement, auto exhaust, street food, brick walls, and the fleeting scents of a million strangers brushing past one another in a hurry to anywhere but where they are at this exact moment. That rose brings us back for sniff after sniff, daring us to separate it from the city on whose back it lives, until we realize that we can't- that the city and the flower are one and the same, faded into one another. Fresh, captivating, distinctly modern and urban, Asphalt Rainbow is not only a worthy follow-up to Christopher Street, but also confirmation that Charenton Macerations is a house of true skill and vision.