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 Aloysius Bell.
Aloysius Bell (a·lo·wish·us bell) is the alter ego of Winnipeg-born, Montreal-based singer-songwriter Annick Brémault. While her name is a nod to the male pseudonyms of the iconic Brontë sisters, Aloysius Bell is a persona born from intense soul-searching who aims to shed light on murky, in-between spaces.
Born from the interplay of otherworldly realms and her imagination, Aloysius Bell‘s debut EP Warm Thing artlessly melds her distinctive songwriting with pop, RnB and electro influences. Produced with multi-disciplinary Toronto artist Driftnote (Korea Town Acid, R. Flex) and mixed by David Plowman (July Talk, Dillan Ponders), Warm Thing is set for release in February 2024.
For Brémault, new single “That Is Me” highlights the way that she was taught to please – like many other AFAB humans – and in this song she’s reimagining herself the way she wishes she’d been in her 20’s: not wasting time trying to please other people.
Stream + share “That Is Me” now:
When it’s starting to get cold like it is now, I like making myself some golden milk – I just heat up whatever plant milk I have in the fridge, grate some fresh ginger, turmeric, cinnamon and add some black pepper, honey, star anise and/or cardamom if I have some. Then I let that heat up (no boiling!) and steep for a bit. Then I drink it and it’s the most soothing, warming thing ever.
When I’m writing songs I tend not to listen to a lot of music, since I absorb some of what I’m listening to and I don’t really want that. Even though I know it’s impossible to not have influences show up, I like leaning into my perspective as much as I can. I also tend to get my inspo from non-musical places. And though I’m kind of always songwriting, I’m not in a focused moment right now, so I’ve been listening to more music lately, especially local artists. The track I picked is by a Montreal-born, Amsterdam-based artist, producer and DJ named Gayance. Her album Masquerade was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize this year. There are a lot of great tracks on this album, but my favorite is called Dead End and it’s a collab with Janette King, another Montreal-based artist, musician and producer/DJ I’m a fan of. I love how their voices intertwine on this track. The writing is really melodic, fun and there’s something that feels spontaneous about it. It has a great beat and a lot of space in the production, which I love. There’s just a really nice balance of simplicity and intricacy and I’m all about that.
Dead End:
This visual and musical artist is one I get so much joy from. Based out of North Carolina (if my investigations are correct), MycoLyco brings together their passions for plants, mushrooms and modular synths. On their Spotify profile it says they use a biodata sonification module to convert changes in resistance into control voltages for their eurorack modular synth. I only understand part of what I just wrote, but basically, they hook up electrodes to reishi mushrooms, succulents or other living things to generate sounds and create sound baths and music. The results are amazing and I find it super inspiring to watch and hear plants and mushrooms talking in bleeps and bloops. I’ve gone deep down the rabbit hole a few times and have lots of favourite videos. Here’s one of MycoLyco interacting with a Turkey Tail mushroom.
MycoLyco (on Insta)
Tea + Me 