Founder & Perfumer of VOICE FROM THE SKY
Tianle Feng was born into a family of perfumers — with a father who was among China’s first professionally trained perfumers, Tianle grew up in fragrance labs before studying at ISIPCA and founding his own house, VOICE FROM THE SKY, in 2019. The brand has since built a reputation for deeply personal, story-driven compositions rooted in Chinese heritage and personal lineage. This month, VOICE FROM THE SKY presents at the Asia Perfume Show in Paris alongside its latest creation, Tough Berry — a strawberry fragrance created for and inspired by his second daughter.
- Name something ordinary that you find beautiful.
Strawberry.
It is my second daughter's favorite fruit, flavor and note, which led me to realize its beauty — it's floral and green with tropical fruitiness; it is cute while full of energy. It is so tasty, yet so easy to plant, meaning that it is tough enough to grow in almost any kind of soil and climate. It is also the inspiration for our latest launch — Tough Berry, a strawberry fragrance, and a fragrance for our second daughter.
- The last thing you read, watched, or saw that stuck with you.
The Long Season by Xin Shuang.
It makes me feel the toughness of ordinary people's lives and their resilience. It is about losing everything in your life and still living with hope. Since I was planning to make a fragrance inspired by the spirit of ordinary people, I was looking for references from literature and film, and gradually it led me to discover this fascinating and soul-touching work.
- What's the hardest part of turning an idea into something real?
I don't find it hard. What's harder is figuring out what you really want to say — something you truly believe in, something that makes you feel proud of yourself when you do it. Perfume making, for me, is a journey of exploration and demonstration. Put another way, while making a perfume, an idea never comes alone without "the real thing" — language is the carrier of ideas, while feeling is the carrier of language. A perfume is where feelings and words meet.
- One ingredient you'd ban if you ruled the world.
None. Why bother banning an ingredient when more and more ingredients are already getting banned?
- What's your studio smell like right now?
A mixture of passion fruit, peach and frankincense.
- If today had a smell…
It might be mooncake and green tea. Today we're flying to Paris, and we have to celebrate the Moon Festival in France during the exhibition… Along the way to the airport, I've been humming songs about the Moon Festival, missing my family — I guess I'm already a bit homesick. But I feel fresh and a bit excited too — I just took a sip of fresh, icy green tea with mint as a boarding drink. So it's about missing home, but also being excited to travel.
