Sweet smells make sweet music<\/p>\n
An expert has blended fragrances with music from Hall\u00e9 orchestra musicians to give people with dementia a whole new experience.<\/p>\n
They have listened to music from Spain with the smell of oranges in the air and soothing music set to the scent of lavender, while the whiff of the beach set the scene for some water music.<\/p>\n
The collaboration between top creative perfumer Kate Williams and Hall\u00e9 musicians is being explored by the Pendine Park care organisation.<\/p>\n
Its partnerships with the Hall\u00e9 and Welsh National Opera has already earned Pendine Park a award from Arts and Business Cymru, when it recently won the Arts, Business and the Community Award, sponsored by Wales and West Utilities.<\/p>\n
The sessions have been staged for residents at Bodlondeb, Pendine Park\u2019s purpose built centre of excellence to look after people with dementia.<\/p>\n
Kate, creative perfumer for Manchester-based Seven Scents, the wholly owned subsidiary of PZ Cussons\u2019 fragrance division, said: \u201cI think it\u2019s very beneficial for people with dementia. A pleasant smell in the room is so uplifting. Our sessions have gone really well and the feedback has been very positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a working relationship with the Hall\u00e9 through the sponsorship link with our parent company PZ Cussons. We wanted to develop the relationship and I started working creatively with Hall\u00e9 composer and Education Director Steve Pickett, putting together fragrances with the music and taking them into schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said it would be good if I looked at the work the Hall\u00e9 does with homes, like Pendine Park.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kate pointed out that food fragrances released automatically have already helped dementia patients who can forget to feed themselves at mealtimes. The smell of food reminds them to eat.<\/p>\n
Pendine Park\u2019s Artist-in-Residence, Sarah Edwards, said: \u201cFor our first session we had a theme \u2013 \u2018holidays\u2019 \u2013 and matched the music and fragrances accordingly.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor instance Kate produced a smell of oranges and then the musicians played some Spanish music.<\/p>\n
\u201cKate also produced the smell of fresh cut grass and lavender and is going to produce candy floss for another session.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reaction from the residents was good. We noticed the fragrances stimulated them, particularly the orange smell when they became a lot noisier! The lavender made everyone more
\nchilled and relaxed.<\/p>\n
“The fragrance therapy is part of a wider project to create new training modules for our care staff, promoting the arts and various therapies so we can enrich people’s lives.”<\/p>\n
Kate added: \u201cWith the orange smell the residents got a real buzz about it and loved engaging with the music.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a composition for residents to become involved using rain sticks so that it builds up from rain to a storm, for which I produce a beach\/marine fragrance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my job I create fragrances for everything from shower gels to laundry products, perfume to aftershaves, it\u2019s just the theme which is different here. I produce the fragrances in a spray and spray it onto blotters which the residents can keep hold of.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we had the calming lavender music we had a few residents drifting off!\u201d She\u2019s working on a Pendine request for the holiday music by producing the smell of a coconut suntan lotion.<\/p>\n
The music was provided by Hall\u00e9 musicians, including Pendine Park’s Musician in Residence, Janet Simpson, who plays the piano and celeste, and cellist David Petri.<\/p>\n
Steve Pickett said: \u201cPZ Cussons is one of our major sponsors and as a company they are fun to work with because they do not simply give us money – they are really interested in what we do and how we do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a number of strategies, for our schools concerts we started off with a theme about the senses and Kate designed some scratch and sniff cards for the children to use during the concerts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Hall\u00e9 has also done some improvisational things at Cussons as part of team building exercises. Kate has done other general work involving dementia and has also done work with the
\nSeashell Trust (for the deaf) where PZ Cussons and Hall\u00e9 have connections.<\/p>\n
\u201cHall\u00e9 have been involved in music in residence at Pendine for about three years now and Cussons was interested in what we do here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kate studied psychology at university but for her Masters looked at the interaction between fragrances and what people choose. That led her to the little-known world of the perfume industry.<\/p>\n
And what happens to a creative perfumer when she gets a cold? \u201cI have to do my paperwork,\u201d added Kate.<\/p>\n