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 break with our Afternoon Tea curators. Need an extra lump of sugar? One more sip? If you have five minutes more (or ten), we have one more hit.
Today’s tea + soundtrack + visuals curated by Elisa Thorn.
Vancouver-based harpist, vocalist, and composer Elisa Thorn shares her latest single, “The Garden,” a gentle, nostalgic, and experimental folk track that reflects on memory, grief, and the inner landscape of the self across time.
Inspired by a long-form sound collage Thorn created in 2021 called The Years In Between, “The Garden” explores the idea that all versions of ourselves – past, present, and future – exist within us simultaneously. Through this sonic meditation, Thorn invites listeners to reflect on the idea of traveling across time to nurture the inner child, commune with our ancestors, or simply sit with the stillness of self-discovery.
The song’s title references a deeply personal moment: a final conversation between Thorn and her grandmother. As her grandmother lay on her deathbed, she whispered, “Don’t worry darling, I found the secret garden.” That phrase, and the spiritual peace it implied, became the heart of the song – a place that transcends time and holds space for healing.
“The Garden” was co-produced with David Vertesi, who contributed bass and helped shape the track’s ethereal atmosphere. Everything beyond the vocals and bass comes from the harp itself, transformed through creative sound design to stretch the instrument’s possibilities into dreamy, ambient textures. One of the track’s standout moments is the delayed harp line that closes the song; it’s one of Thorn‘s favourite parts to play live.
Stream + share “The Garden” now:
This song is brief in words but deep in feeling. The image of the willow tree, which comes up often in my dreams, represents refuge for my younger self. It’s the kind of place I tell my loved ones to meet me in spirit – ‘meet you by the willow tree’ is my version of ‘sweet dreams.’ I hope this piece gives people a sense of calm and introspection. It’s about stillness, and the quiet magic of self-connection. – Elisa Thorn
Thorn‘s upcoming solo album, xiik, set to arrive in fall 2025, expands on the themes introduced in “The Garden,” exploring time, selfhood, and transformation. She describes the project with a wink as “experimental indie for the bathtub” – music that invites reflection but refuses to stay confined to one genre or mood.
Music: Thanya Iyer- I am Here Now
Visual: Painting by my grandmother, Anthea Loran (Untitled)
Tea: Chai
I often have a hard time classifying my music into a genre or category – and most music I love the most shares that difficult-to-name quality as well. Thanya Iyer (Montreal) is an artist whose music is very dear to me and I hope to fall in whatever genre she makes as well. Organic? Generous? Inviting? Bathtub? Meadow? Warm? Free? Embrace? These are the genres I would give Thanya’s music, and I hope The Garden feels that way too. The Garden was born from a long-form sound collage I created in 2021 called The Years In Between. This piece explores the idea that all versions of ourselves – past, present, and future – exist within us simultaneously. From that perspective, there is a threshold from which we can make contact with our inner-child, our ancestors, and our future selves.
The song’s title references a very special moment I shared with my grandmother as she was making her way towards death. We lay cuddling on her bed, and I was having a hard time containing my grief. She said to me “Don’t worry darling, I found the secret garden.” It’s a place I return to often, and as I reflect on that moment more and more, I find it is a place I have often written my music from, even before this conversation we had. I have included a painting that she made that I have hanging in my house – I like to imagine it is a vision of “the garden” from earlier in her life.
Tea + Me 