Radio Bombay Pocket Perfume

A transistor radio made of sandalwood radiates gases in the Bandra heat. Hot copper tubes heat the soft wood, releasing distillates of musk, cream, peach, ambrette, coconut, and cedar.

I'm interested in hypothetical smells. Not everything has a strong or easily detectable aroma, but objects can impart a scent. Light bulbs glow. Electricity flows through their metal filaments. They melt the dust on their surface, releasing heat in the process. The tubes in amplifiers have a certain aroma. When my '69 Fender Deluxe is heated up (after some serious monster shredding), the back of the amp produces a hot, dusty, metal-grease smell—the scent of backstage behind a humid stage.

So what if an old sandalwood radio housed a tube amplifier? The interplay of heat would open the wood's pores and release its soft, elegant scent—wafts of musky cedar, peach, coconut, lactones, and milk.

Real sandalwood essence is perfection. I often wear it neat. It smells of India, of sculptures, of purity and focus. Unfortunately, it has been overharvested, so perfumers no longer use the oil from Mysore.

Radio Bombay is a deconstruction of Mysore sandalwood, rebuilt with all the aspects described above in mind. I imagine the radio in a small, hot shop in Bandra—the "Brooklyn" of Bombay (sorry). The heat deconstructs the oils in the wood. Ragas and Geeta Dutt melodies tinkle from its tiny speaker in the bustling city.

- DS

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