By JACK DELANEY | jdelaney@queensledger.com
Perfume and synths: an unlikely duo, or a match made in heaven?
Just ask Clément Mercet and Ugo Charron, better known as the electronic group Cosmic Gardens, whose calling cards are exactly that. Curious Brooklynites will have plenty of opportunities: the pair are launching a Greenpoint residency, during which they will be performing their signature show once per month.
When Mercet and Charron first met in 2019, the former was in Williamsburg working in advertising and the latter was based out of Bushwick pursuing a career in the fragrance business. But a mutual friend said they would connect over a shared interest: music.
Soon after meeting, the new comrades formed Cosmic Gardens, a band initially built around adaptations of Mercet’s solo material. “We had a weekend with friends,” recalled Mercet, “and we brought our guitars. That was how it started, [with] more acoustic, melancholic ballads.”
Before long, however, they had shifted to a more ambitious project that would unify their common passions — electronica, scents, and the environment — under one umbrella, a subgenre they call “organic indietronica.”
The results speak for themselves: since they began touring several years ago, Cosmic Gardens has performed sold-out shows everywhere from Lincoln Center to Dubai, drawing concertgoers with the promise of a “multi-sensorial” experience.
The show is structured as a three-part journey ushering the audience from the sea, to the forest, and ultimately to outer space. Charron’s perfumes mimic each biome — salty, earthy, and ethereal — and a sequence of original visuals sets the scene.
Cosmic Gardens staged their first installment of the residency last weekend, at Loft Story on Manhattan Ave. They were joined by two additional DJs: Sajh, originally hailing from Paris, and Ÿas, whose repertoire blends elements from the idioms of French electronica, Moroccan music, and Chicago house. Attendees were able to avail themselves of cocktails specially tailored to the tripartite themes of the show.
Though Mercet and Charron have their performance down to a science by now, there are still venue-specific technical issues to work out. One particularly tricky detail is ensuring that the perfumes diffuse throughout the space, which Charran — who apprenticed under a master perfumer for three years — said he was not taught in his master’s program. Instead, he’s had to optimize it through trial and error.
“My family is not at all from the perfume industry,” noted Charron, “but I come from Sancerre. I remember my father would have me smell the wine — not tasting too early! — so that definitely could be an influence.”
On the music side, Mercet attributed his passion to experimentation. “It has always been a fight between doing some regular job and getting money, and spending time creating music,” he said. “My father is a musician, but my parents never pushed my brother and me to do any music. So we learned on our own, and we had the same band: he was the singer, I was the drummer.”
While the group demurred when asked whether their show was motivated by an ecological ethic, Mercet does hope that it inspires audience members to reflect on their relationship to nature: ”It’s a matter of questioning life on Earth.”
“This is more than just a visual, olfactory and auditory journey,” their website explains, “it is an introspective one as well. It will awaken your senses and make you feel connected to your roots.”
The next show will be on Thursday, May 22, at Loft Story again (748 Manhattan Ave). You can find more info at cosmicgardens.com.