When David Seth, a peripatetic musician by trade and a savant, who always had a passion for perfumes, met architect Kavi Ahuja (a.k.a. Durga, which means Hindu Goddess, named by Seth upon their first meet), who studied in L.A., and Holland, they decided to marry his sense for romance and her eyes for design to create a unisex perfume house based in Brooklyn, New York called D.S. & Durga.

Using raw materials, he exerts notes from his travels or draws inspiration from lore, legends and music to create scents, and she uses her architectural knowledge to distill the fragrances into the package they live in. Whether creating an exclusive line of aromatics for Barney's New York labeled Hylnds, or launching a new scent called Debaser(in March), named after a song written by Black Francis (of the Pixies), its notes of fig, iris, coconut milk, tonka and dry blond woods is indeed music in a bottle. (50ml for $145; dsanddurga.com)

While the Debaser fragrance launches in March, the D.S. & Durga Candles(in '85 Diesel, Portable Fireplace, and Spirit Lamp) have just launched in time for the winter solstice.

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