Ten minute tea with Afternoon Tea. Spend ten minutes with Afternoon Tea. In the time it takes to boil one kettle, and let one cup of tea steep, we will have your daily art + music fix covered. Take your afternoon tea break with our Afternoon Tea curators.
Today’s tea + soundtrack + visuals curated by Leahy, with answers from Julie Frances @julieleahyofficial @leahymusicofficial.
Leahy’s new album Good Water is a collection of songs that give insight into the varied musical influences that have shaped this band and is their first studio album in more than 10 years. From choral & classical to roots, traditional & Celtic to rock, pop & country, elements of each have found their way onto this album, brought together masterfully in the hands of Canadian producer David Bottrill, weaving a distinct sonic “tapestry”. The song ideas explore universal themes of love, struggle, perseverance, overcoming, redemption and, ultimately, hope. There’s lots to listen to on this record.
Tea: “Black tea with sugar and lemon”
Art: William Kurelek
“In early 2009 I had the great honour to visit William Kurelek’s home in Toronto. An elderly close friend of the family invited me to accompany her for tea with the Kurelek family. During our visit it was suggested I venture downstairs to see the room where William painted but wasn’t prepared for what I saw. His painting room was in the basement, it was tiny like a bunker, claustrophobic for most people and every part of that room had been elaborately, painstakingly painted or tiled with small painted tiles. The detail, the attention, the work that must have gone into creating what I encountered; it was beautiful and overwhelming. You knew somebody loved something there in that room. And the painting didn’t start there, it began when you opened the door at the top of the basement stairs and continued all the way down on the stairs, the baseboards, sideboards, support beams, walls and all intricately painted in detail with a multitude of colours wherever possible. So much like an elaborate Ukrainian easter egg. Though I knew Mr. Kurelek was heralded as one of the great painters of Canada it was in that basement I learned about the artist William Kurelek – and how total he was; not half, not maybe, not kind of, total. Here was a man who loved something. I have never ever forgotten this.”
Manitoba Party 
No Grass Grows On The Beaten Path 
The Painter 
Netherne Hospital Workshop 
Lord That I May See 
Zaporozhian Cossacks
Music: Histoire Du Tango – Cafe 1930
“This recording is a masterpiece in composition, arrangement and performance. The only thing I would offer is immerse yourself in the listening of this performance and all its subtleties. It will endlessly reward.”
Violinist: Gidon Kremer
Bandoneon and Arranger: Per Arne Glorvigen
Composer: Astor Piazzolla
Tea + Me 