Mortimer, Be Quiet. - Persimmon (2023) Hi-Res

Mortimer, Be Quiet. is the musical project of emerging Toronto-based visual artist James Knott. Named after their creaky-voiced grump of a piano, Mortimer looks to make deliriously off-kilter oddball pop music; with the masochistically wry confessional awareness of a singer-songwriter, but the absurdity of a mad scientist desperately seeking satisfaction (and never finding it).

Mortimer, Be Quiet has unveiled his album, Persimmon. Persimmon is an album of multi-phased and orchestrally layered songs about the loneliness and isolation of growing up and growing apart—from friends and family, from society, and even your own body.

The lead single “After Dark” has Mortimer, Be Quiet. mythologizing themselves as a wounded astronaut, narrating a plea to not surrender to apocalyptic thinking amidst an uncertain future. Dueling flute solos enliven the frantic samba breakdown before the final movement of the song. “The Alchemist” is a baroque-infused electropop odyssey that revisits the iconic story of Frankenstein as a metaphor for queer narratives of body dysmorphia and parental shame.