Aura

The name Hatis Noit—where does it come from?

HATIS NOIT: The name is taken from Japanese folklore, meaning the stem of the lotus flower. The lotus represents the living world, while its root represents the spirit world; therefore, Hatis Noit connects the two. My music represents the same netherworld… the ability to move and transport one to the other side – past, memory, and subconscious.

When you sing, where in your body do you feel that connection happening? Is it in your throat, your chest?

HATIS NOIT: I create music using the voice only, with no lyrics but instead a universal but made-up language. Words cannot describe everything we feel. How can one accurately verbalize the sensation we feel when we’re newborns, and our mother holds us in her arms, and we feel her skin on our cheek? We clearly feel her warmth and humidity, some feeling of love from her, but it’s tough to verbalize perfectly. Music is a language that can translate that sensation, emotion, and the memory of love.

So the voice becomes archaeology—excavating what exists before language?

HATIS NOIT: Whatever calls for the composition calls for the song.

You return often to Shiretoko in your work. Can you describe what that landscape feels like—not what it looks like, but what it feels like to move through it?

HATIS NOIT: Definitely, my birthplace Shiretoko in Hokkaido, Japan. Also, the universal sentiments and sensations of being human, such as love, nostalgia, awe, vital power, et cetera. As well as the energy of nature – calm, fierce, soft, and dynamic characteristics.

The opening track, “Aura”—what specific moment does it return you to?

HATIS NOIT: Whenever I perform the song Aura, I remember getting lost in a forest in my birthplace Shiretoko, Hokkaido. I felt as if I was close to my death; I could feel myself dissolving into and becoming a part of nature rather than just being an individual. This sense of awe and peace found there is always the place where I start making music from. And so it felt like a natural opening to the journey of this album.

“Jamon” takes its name from Japanese prehistory. What drew you to that period?

HATIS NOIT: “Jamon” is the period in Japanese prehistory before proper agriculture started. Jomon culture, including its dynamic style of art — surprisingly, it was not like minimal Zen style at all — was one of the biggest inspirations of my favorite Japanese artist Taro Okamoto. He believed that people in the Jomon period were still connected to natural spirits and that their fierce energy through hunting and gathering made their art so special and esoteric. In this piece, I tried to describe a dynamic natural energy and power, and the people’s celebration and prayer for it.

And “Sir Etok”—the original Ainu name for Shiretoko. What does it mean to sing in a language that’s not your own but belongs to the land?

HATIS NOIT: “Sir Etok” is the original name for Shiretoko in Ainu, the language of the indigenous people in Hokkaido. This song is the oldest song on the album. Thinking of wild nature and animals in forests, especially around my birthplace Shiretoko, and remembering their conversation through sounds — the howls of animals, the twittering of birds, the blowing of the wind, springing water, flowing down the river, wetting the ground… this always makes me feel so energized and soothed. So whenever I feel lost, I try to connect to that energy again.

I tried to describe a dynamic natural energy and power, and the people’s celebration and prayer for it.

I want to ask you some questions as if we were building a scent—translating what you do with sound into materials, textures, temperatures.

If music had a smell, what would it be?

HATIS NOIT: I think some wood, earthy herbal smell.

Are there objects you associate with your voice—things you could hold in your hand?

HATIS NOIT: Human skin, veins, wood, leaves.

And places? Where does the music live spatially?

HATIS NOIT: Definitely the forest and river streams.

When you think of Aura specifically—the album as a whole—what colors appear?

HATIS NOIT: Cyan, turquoise blue, vivid yellow, and red, as found in the cover artwork of my album. As for textures, something bold, strong, and rich.

What about shapes? If the album had a physical form, what would it be?

HATIS NOIT: [Laugh] Organic streams.

Human skin, veins, wood, leaves.

In perfumery, we often ask about earliest scent memories. But I want to ask: which tracks on Aura carry the heaviest memory for you?

HATIS NOIT: I would say “Angelus Novus” and “Inori”; they are all about memory. “Angelus Novus,” meaning ‘New Angel’ in Latin, is a monoprint by the artist Paul Klee, which appears in the German philosopher Walter Benjamin’s essay ‘Angel of History.’ When I wrote this song, I remembered the image of an angel flying against the rough winds of history, resonating very strongly with personal and social struggles. The song has a very intimate, introverted ending, as I wanted it to end with a place of healing. And ‘Inori’ means ‘prayer’ in Japanese and is dedicated to the people of Fukushima.

Expressing humanity and compassion is the most important thing as an artist.

Expressing humanity and compassion is the most important thing as an artist.

I’m listening to Aura again as I write this, with Hatis’s words in mind—cyan and turquoise, wood and leaves, organic streams. I can smell it now: the earth after rain, the inside of bark, the mineral cold of river water. Music and perfume are both durational, both invisible, both held in the body before they’re held in the mind. They move through you and you dissolve into them, which is maybe another way of saying: you become what you pay attention to.

The fragrance we created from this conversation carries Shiretoko’s forest floor, the smoke of Jomon fires, the reflection of tears and prayers. It opens warm and earthy and settles into something ancient, pre-linguistic, closer to skin than to words.

SCENT NOTES:

Ginger, Elemi, Pink Pepper, Bergamot, Pine Needle, Incense, Lily Of The Valley, Vétiver, Pine Needle Absolute, Fir Balsam, Ambroxan.

FÀP – Essays: Interview / Hatis Noit / Aura

50ml Eau de Parfum

07 / 2022

Photography by Özge Cöne and Fiona Garden

www.hatisnoit.com