Roman Aroma: Where Fragrance Meets Italian Film Music

With summer on the horizon and dreams of languorous sun-filled days and balmy evenings, our thoughts at Playlister are drifting to holiday scents and holiday music. 

Go-to track selections for some of our curation team include music by Italy's influential composers to mid-century Italian cinema - from Armando Trovajoli, Bruno Nicolai and Ennio Morricone, to Piero Piccioni and Piero Umiliani, Nino Rota and Riz Ortolani. It got us thinking about how these luxurious sounds and fragrances complement each other.

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Luxury fragrance is about more than just scent. It’s about the feelings it evokes - nostalgia, memory, romance. Its notes can instantly bring back a place, a person or a feeling. Scent, in this sense, becomes a kind of storytelling.

Music works in much the same way. Like scent, music lingers. It can transport you, shift a mood and help to create a world. Few understood this better than the great Italian film composers. They were masters of mood, scoring scenes like they were scoring memories. Their soundtracks were filled with warmth, mystique and elegance.

There’s so much distinctive about their music: wistful strings, jazz-inflected rhythms, sun-drenched melodies that feel both glamorous and intimate. Every note is steeped in atmosphere. These compositions capture the same qualities that luxury fragrance aspires to — richness, sensuality, mystery.

For luxury fragrance houses, especially those seeking a deeper emotional connection with their audience, music offers an underused yet potent tool. While a well-composed fragrance can define a brand, the right music can reflect their brand identity - just as clearly as scent can. 

Sound, like scent, is a language of memory. It can evoke the same depth, sensuality and nostalgia.  When used together, they can help create a world their customers want to step into. One that lingers long after the first impression has faded. 

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