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 Eva Schubert.
Jazz vocalist and songwriter Eva Schubert is a fresh new voice, whose sound blends seamlessly with the classic style of jazz greats like Helen Mirrell, Peggy Lee, and Nat King Cole.
Her fourth album, The Feel of Your Love, is a sultry, hypnotic collection of songs that effortlessly shift the colour of your mood. Beautiful piano stylings, guitar riffs and saxophone grooves mix classic jazz sounds with a distinctly modern sonic palette.
Eva was inspired to write the wistful and haunting “Dark Star” one summer evening when she was walking in the park and heard a man singing in a distinctly Latin style. As she walked on, a few of those notes began echoing in her mind, and she started adding to them.
Watch + share the “Dark Star” lyric video:
However, when she brought this song to her producer, he wasn’t really sure how to arrange it. They ended up heading into the studio without any rough arrangement prepared, though they had sketches of all the other songs on the album. Eva just walked up to the mic and sang the lyrics a capella in the studio, for the other musicians. There was complete silence.
Then, when she sang it again, they started to play along… And right there the song blossomed in front of them, like a flower emerging from the soil and maturing in mere minutes.
Tea: Stash: Double Spice Chai
I love this tea because the flavour of ginger and cardamom is pronounced. With a dash of milk, it’s the perfect pick-me-up on a weekday afternoon. While I love strong dark coffee in the morning, I try to limit my caffeine intake during the day, and this tea hits the spot without as much caffeine as coffee. I like strong tastes in general.
Music: “Song for Zula” by Phosphorescent.
This song had an incredible effect on me the first time I heard it, about eight years ago. Like great poetry, it goes beyond the lyrics, and expresses a nameless sense of longing. It’s like a thirst for freedom and that feeling at the core of certain moments in life that defies words. Whenever I listen to it, even now, it just instantly changes my state of mind and brings those feelings to the surface. I’m not normally a fan of synthesized sounds, but on this track they create a shimmering magic that I just love.
Art: “On Ancient Ice” by Paul Nicklen
I have been following Paul Nicklen’s work for years on Instagram @paulnicklen. It’s incredibly beautiful, and captures the wild splendor of animals and places that most of us have lost touch with. We talk about climate change, but seem to think that we can just crank up the air conditioning and carry on with our lives. In the summer of 2021, I was paddling near Churchill, Manitoba. It’s a town that calls itself “The Polar Bear Capital of the World”. While there, I had the privilege of seeing these magnificent animals for myself. They, and the delicate ecosystem that they are part of, are directly and currently affected by global warming. We can’t even begin to calculate all that we will lose if we don’t turn this around.
Tea + Me 