Hyperion – finally another new fragrance from Rubini! Of course I’m not going to miss out on it and I’m going to introduce it to you today. By the way, you can find a list of all Rubini articles here. For those in a hurry, my review of Odenaturae gave you a quick run-through of the Italian house’s oeuvre. I can only repeat myself: for me, Rubini is one of the best and most credible niche fragrance brands. Few fragrances are released after a long development period, which benefits the quality. Packaging design, concepts, stories are coherent and you get friendly information from the brand owner Andrea Rubini himself. Many thanks for that.
Hyperion is a name with many references to cultural history. In ancient Greek, it means something like “the superior” and refers to a Titan, among other things. Those interested in literature will be familiar with a novel of the same name by Hölderlin.
Hyperion – the movie
The fragrance Hyperion was preceded by a great accompanying film, which I would like to present to you. The director is Andrei Purcărea, who has also worked for other fragrance brands.
The scene: images of a ray of fire and a broken mirror appear. Scene changes to a forest. We see a young man running through this forest. What he is running away from is unknown. Suddenly he stops, because in front of him is another person in an antique-looking pilot’s suit with a helmet. He looks at him with interest. The pilot waves him over. The man rubs his eyes. The next moment, the pilot has disappeared, leaving only his suit on the forest floor.
The man wakes up from this, now we know, dream. He thinks and goes into an adjoining room, where he lights a lamp. Underneath is the helmet from a dream. He puts it on. You can hear a countdown in the background. Images of flames and body cells appear. The rocket takes off, the man is visibly affected by the pressure of the launch, breathing heavily. Flashbacks in black and white. The man reaches for the outline of the bottle. Flashback to the forest, where he looks at himself in a broken mirror, on one shard in “civilian” form, on the other as an astronaut. Perspective shifts again and again from the rocket to the forest. Finally, he nods with relief, as if he has realized something. Then the inserts “The journey becomes the search itself, a path of change and self-discovery. HYPERION. RUBINI”
Interpretation of the movie
Rubini provides most of the interpretation in the product text itself:
A space explorer embarks on a long and adventurous journey in search of unexplored places. The duration of the mission is unknown, nor where it will take him. In the darkness of deepest space and in the absence of gravity, only starlight illuminates his path.
Hyperion leads him on a spiritual journey in search of himself in order to discover the infinite. The journey becomes the search itself, a path of change and self-discovery that brings light into the darkness of the unknown.
“Finding yourself”. Often synonymous with ego-based feel-good spirituality and naïve self-affirmation. What could be lazier than saying: “I am who I am. Everyone else has to accept that”? The movie hints at it. Self-knowledge and confrontation with one’s own self are exhausting, painful, perhaps even devastating. A risky journey into the unknown, as if you were shooting yourself into space on a rocket. Letting go of cherished certainties. The mirror has to break so that you can take on new perspectives. What is the reward for this risk? Clarity about yourself. Being able to work on your own character, make peace with yourself and perhaps also your past, become a different, perhaps better person.
Hyperion – the fragrance
Self-knowledge is not (yet) available to spray on. But let’s take a look at how Rubini has translated this archetypal journey into the language of fragrances. Once again, in-house perfumer Cristiano Canali was responsible for this.
Rubini about Hyperion:
The spaceship Hyperion flies at speed into infinity. Glittering stars, pulsating with energy, an explosion of shimmering lightning caused by the supernova accord. The incense leads the journey into our inner universe, accompanied by ylang-ylang, Himalayan cedarwood and patchouli absolute, as deep and dark as outer space. Once through the echo of cosmic amber, the universe opens up to the horizon. Now it is up to you to take control of this odyssey. Hyperion is our most ambitious fragrance yet. We have imagined the scents of the universe: the feeling of emptiness, absolute peace and the infinite reverberation of an unfathomable cosmos. A play of contrasts between primeval sparks and sidereal voids. The mirror image of ourselves.
My first impression on the test strip. Strangely candy-like citrus notes and peppery spiciness meet maritime, metallic notes. On the skin, however, a citrus-framed incense emerges more clearly. The yuzu notes appear again and again like flashes of light in the midst of a darkness of black pepper, earthy patchouli and impermeable wood. The head and heart are very present right from the start, while the base takes its time and reveals itself more and more. In fact, it is the primordial soup here, maritime, not aquatic, algae and mineral-metallic, almost bloody accents, ambergris straight from the whale? Captured by an incense that lingers for an unexpectedly long time and holds the reins throughout.
The fragrance notes of Hyperion
Top notes: ylang-ylang, incense, patchouli, cedarwood
Heart notes: yuzu, ginger, black pepper, Szechuan pepper, pepper
Base notes: algae, ambergris
Conclusion
The story of the spaceman on his way into the empty cosmos as a journey to his own self or as individuation has been perfectly taken up olfactorically. Is the fragrance simple? Absolutely not. Where Fundamental or Odenaturae were quite pleasing, Hyperion starts with Tambour Sacré and shows us a challenging fragrance that only reveals itself after a while. You could criticize it for being unruly, cerebral and dissonant. I say; complex, multi-layered – and once you have worked your way through it, a greater pleasure.
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