Legendary Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi presents his new single, ‘Scent of Dark,’ accompanied by a fragrance created in collaboration with Italian luxury fragrance manufacturer Xerjoff.
While the world of high-end fragrances and the uncompromising heavy metal music for which Iommi is known may not seem like natural companions at first glance, the guitarist has long had an interest in fragrances.
"When I started touring the world with Black Sabbath, I began discovering fragrances from other countries and collecting them on tour. I met Sergio through a mutual friend. He sent me a box of his fragrances and asked if I would be interested in designing my own, which I really wasn't expecting,‘ laughs Iommi. ’He developed a few different samples based on my suggestions, and I chose the one I liked; from there, the project took off."
‘Sound, smell and image change and interpenetrate each other. This happens in a Samsara of creative confusion stimulated by creative personalities, which turns the senses from smell to sight to hearing into a creative playground.’ – Sergio Momo
Tony Iommi, whose monolithic guitar riffs are rightly credited with single-handedly creating the broad genre of heavy metal, returns with new music. Following his 2017 musical collaboration with the Birmingham Cathedral Choir, ‘Scent of Dark’ is his first new music since the release of Black Sabbath's album ‘13’ in 2013.
The new single, entitled ‘Scent of Dark’, is a narrative instrumental piece that is unmistakably Iommi. From the fateful intro and harmonious leads to the riff, it is unmistakably the distinctive style that has sold over a hundred million albums worldwide and created a paradigm shift in the world of rock.
Sergio Momo, who plays a signature Iommi guitar on the new single, takes the first solo on the song, while Jimmy Crutchley (who introduced Iommi to Momo) plays bass, accompanied by drums, keyboard, violin and cello. The accompanying music video, which also features various perfume scenes, was shot by the musicians at Sudeley Castle near Gloucestershire, England.
‘Xerjoff Blends aims to intertwine sensory and cultural perceptions. It is a place to unleash creativity into a new chaos, where differences become uniqueness and artistic experimentation is the perfect way to show that true freedom does not lie in standardisation, but in discovering the unique within oneself. To be equally extraordinary.’
Not a provocative statement, but a cultural manifesto. This is how the experimental artistic journey of Xerjoff Blends can be summarised. It is a project of sensory stimuli to level social patterns in the pursuit of a new equality. The sense of smell interacts with other forms of artistic expression and inspires them, playing with cultural and sensory perceptions and disrupting them by developing new ones and challenging our ideas.
Tony Iommi Blend No 1 Monkey Special:
‘Sergio and I went through various perfume variations. We worked very intensively to achieve the complexity I was looking for. The end result harmoniously characterises the dark sound of my original '64 Monkey Special guitar with spicy, seductive and rebellious notes, combined with leathery accents.’ – Tony Iommi
The collection
Xerjoff Blends is the catalyst that unleashes creativity and merges sensory and cultural concepts into a new reality. In this powerful collection that combines perfume and passion, Sergio Momo collaborates with renowned colleagues to create an unprecedented phenomenon. An incomparable universe that combines perfume with alternative sensory elements, creating a new and unique multisensory experience. Xerjoff Blends transcends boundaries and opens doors to infinite pleasures such as music, art, architecture and cuisine, to name but a few.
