Oud

I like the sound of the oud.

He played an old Turkish song on his new oud.

Oriental music is chiefly unrhythmical [...]. It is mostly rendered by a solo voice with accompaniment of the Ud, a kind of lyre or mandolin, or Kanun, resembling a guitar.

Common throughout the Arab and Persian world, the oud is a fretless short-neck lute with a pear-shaped, flat top, rounded back, and a peghead characteristically bent backwards at a very sharp angle. The oud's origins are unknown, although myths attribute either celestial or magical beginnings, it more likely came from ancient Persia.

The recent fashion for oud (the noble rot of Aquilaria trees) took flight when YSL released M7, where the oud accord was center stage. It came with an advertising campaign featuring a hairy naked guy, a sight rated “beautiful” by my co-author. Real oud is complex material, with honey, tobacco, leaf, minty-fresh and castoreum animalic notes all mixed together.