Biehl Parfumkunstwerke: "Perfume Art. Nothing Else" {Spotlight on a Brand}

biehl. parfumkunstwerke is a cosmopolitan German Hamburg-based perfume house with roots in New York city which was created last year by veteran fragrance developer Thorsten Biehl who is also the son of perfumer Henning Biehl.

The motto of the new perfume house is "Perfume art. Nothing else". In keeping with this demanding purist approach, the collection of 13 inaugural perfumes were designed by 6 perfumers who were given maximum creative freedom by Thorsten Biehl acting like a perfume editor in the vein of Frederic Malle (see next an interview released by the house with perfumer Egon Oelkers who offers insights into the process).....

The simple packaging does not want to distract attention from the scent and neither do the names which are reduced to the initials of the perfumers and a number in a series. The fragrances are all limited editions. The compositions themselves are said to offer a minimalist style while offering costlier and more numerous ingredients than for mass-marketed perfumes.

Another tag line for biehl. parfumkunswerke, which even elected to drop any capital letters in their name in their constant of movement of self-effacement before perfume as art, is that the perfumery they propose is "not for the masses" meaning is not led by trends but rather by the personalities of the perfumers.

The creative team now comprises six perfumers who are "Mark Buxton of German/British parentage, Arturetto Landi, an Italian, Patricia Choux from France, Egon Oelkers and Geza Schön, Germans, along with his father, Henning Biehl, a German/American."

The "olfactive gallery" of fragrances comprises 13 works that you can discover more in detail here. It may seem like too many perfumes appearing all at once but in fact it is rather restrained a collection compared to the 28 debut fragrances by Maître Parfumeur et Gantier in 1989 created by Jean-François Laporte. At any rate, the concept of an art gallery for fragrances invites you to take your time in contemplating a particular work or two at a time rather than rushing through it as if you were on a tight tourist schedule.

We will review some of the fragrances later on but for now, stay tuned for the next post featuring the interview with Egon Oelkers done by the house.

(via biehl. parfumkunstwerke press release)

The perfumes can be found at Luckyscent in the US and are priced differently depending on the composition.

The brand will become more widely distributed in the US in the second half of 2008.