The precious sensual oil called Neroli (after an Italian princess) is from the flowers of the Seville orange and has given its name to many other things, including a line of lingerie and a beauty spa in Milwaukee. Although Eno's ambient piece Neroli can't help oily skin, it does induce some of the emotional benefits the famous oil is said to invoke. Among other effects, Neroli is said to soothe anxiety and depression while working as a mild aphrodisiac. Eno was a "dilettante perfume-blender" for years before he composed Neroli. His interest stemmed from the fact that, despite being a major category of human experience, the world of smell is largely unmapped. No agreed-upon metaphorical structure exists to help navigate experiences of smell, comparison is the only tool. Eno also notes the subliminality of the effects of many smells. Pheromones aside, he cites the example of "Civet, from the anal gland of the civet cat, is intensely disagreeable as soon as it is recognizable, but amazingly sexy in subliminal doses." Neroli, like his other ambient works, definitely acts subliminally, doing intractable, subtle things to the listener. To compose Neroli, Eno performed a calm, Phrygian melody (about two minutes long, with a wide registerial span) sampled it, and split it into five parts, corresponding to register. From highest to lowest, he sequenced the sections of the melody in incrementally slower tempi then simultaneously set them going . The sections of the melody thus become components of a sonic mobile, themselves unchanging but occurring in ever-shifting relations to each other. The tone used for the melody is like a cloud piano, while his specially built synthesizer produces only the harmonics that are part of the mode of the piece, creating a constant, soft dissonance and a weightless, narcotically sensual atmosphere. Neroli retreats toward a state of pure non-musical sound. Although people make analogies between ambient and visual media, odor and all its mysterious, voluptuous pleasures makes a much more accurate experiential comparison. To Eno, the way people experience smell is also analogous with how they'll eventually experience the products of culture. Although the olfactory conditions of the environment are crucial to quality of life, experiences of smell aren't evaluated or organized in terms of intrinsic 'importance" the way people often still do with cultural products. People don't say "coriander is an 'important' smell," the way they say "Mahler's First is an 'important' symphony." Soon, Eno believes, the way of dealing with culture will resemble the way with dealing with the ephemeral phenomena of atmospheric sensation. Eno also said, typically astute, that "Ambient is closer to heavy metal than anything else. Because it's to do with immersion, and so is heavy metal. It's obvious to me that the next step is going to be something like metal-ambient, some extremely harsh, hostile but intriguing sonic environment." Again, his prophetic powers prove good: Aside from the predicted developments in music appearing on cue, there's now a perfume called Neroli Sauvage. ~ All Music Guide
