Demo Accords Book

Written by perfumer Pia Long, with contributions from Nick Gilbert.
ISBN: 9781919247403

About the book

Featuring ten fully disclosed perfume formulas, one fictional story and nine essays on political and personal topics, Demo Accords is a multidisciplinary collection of narratives in which perfumery forms part of the story and the stories form part of the perfumes.

In this work, Pia Long explores the intersection between her two lifelong passions: writing and perfumery. Part manifesto, part polemic, part protest and part autobiography; the common thread is the radical vulnerability of the art, the practice and the personal views of the perfumer.

By posing fundamental questions about who perfumery belongs to and creating a parallel platform free from brands or commercial consumer products, Demo Accords aims to stand entirely on its own. The project uses perfumery as an artistic medium for storytelling.

If the book is the script, the formulas are the sheet music, and the resulting liquid is the orchestra performing the music. It is not necessary to purchase the accompanying set of liquid perfume samples, but the scents help the reader to hear the music.

Nick Gilbert made a significant contribution to the book by writing scent descriptions and ingredient lists as if they were intended for a protest perfume brand. With original illustrations by various artists and a full-colour cover by a Brighton-based street artist, Demo Accords is more than the sum of its parts.

Chapters and perfumes

Demo Accords: Perfume, Prose and Protest

• Foreword
• 1. Clean (belongs in shampoo)
• 2. ANTIFA (a cruelty-free musk against fascism)
• 3. Foreign (perfume ingredients)
• 4. Well, Actually (a watery folk tale)
• 5. Have You Tried...? (aromatherapy on ableism)
• 6. Fume (Finnish rage)
• 7. Chemical (a 100% natural perfume)
• 8. Male Gaze Repellent (a green chypre)
• 9. Dupe This (old and rose)
• 10. 10 out of 10 (a genderqueer statement perfume)
• Afterword
• Acknowledgements and words of encouragement
• About the authors
• About the illustrators
• Disclaimers and practical tips

About the author

Pia Long is a Finnish-born, UK-based perfumer. She regards scent as a form of communication and perfumes as stories in bottles. Thanks to her background and training in languages, translation and writing, she approaches her craft as magical realism: an interplay of art, design and science through which she brings imaginative experiences to life.

Her career in the world of fragrance spans four decades. During that time, she has created countless perfumes and fragrances for a wide range of products. She is a member of the International Society of Perfumer Creators and the British Society of Perfumers. She has also received the Septimus Piesse Visionary Award from the Institute for Art and Olfaction.

Pia’s first story appeared in a Finnish children’s magazine when she was nine years old. Demo Accords is her first book.