herbal tea- Hear as the Mirror Echoes ORD-78
Release date: August 29, 2025
British artist herbal tea's debut album Hear as the Mirror Echoes drifts in and out like a half-remembered dream. Shaped slowly by songwriter/producer Helena Walker from late-night demos that gradually bloomed into expansive arrangements.
Drawing on dream pop, ambient folk, and lo-fi production, and citing influences from Sparklehorse to Sharon Van Etten, there's an otherworldly quality in the way it softly reimagines the familiar. From the ethereal slowcore of "Seventeen" to the 70s folk-inspired "Driving Slow", each track belongs to its own distinct world. The songs swell with ambient textures and bursts of distortion, building into cinematic crescendos before folding back into quiet moments of sparse piano and lo-fi dissonance. Helena's vocals, often recorded at the time of writing, are ghostly with an undercurrent of gravity, submerged within layers of rich harmonies. Themes of impermanence, dissociation, and emotional transience run throughout, with lyrics lifted from dreams, old diaries, and moments of stream-of-consciousness.
Co-produced with longtime collaborator and childhood friend Henry C Sharpe, the record was mixed and mastered entirely DIY in makeshift setups in living rooms and bedrooms, though a few details were finalised in the basement studio of Bristol’s The Louisiana with entrusted friend Jonny Allan (of Happyness).
Over time, herbal tea’s music has spread quietly, passed between artists and listeners without much promotion. She has been personally invited to open for musicians she deeply admires, including Gia Margaret and Ex:Re, and her music continues to find an audience through word-of-mouth, admired for its emotional weight and rare sense of atmosphere. “I’ve always felt like a bit of an outsider, and making music is my escape.” Helena says. “I hope this album can be that escape for someone else.”
Tracks
- Seventeen (6:31)
- Grounded (6:04)
- Kitchen Floor (4 A.M. (3:40)
- Submarine (3:32)
- Driving Slow (4:06)
- Garden (4:20)
- Frank (4:08)
- Sundown (2:58)
- Kara (5:57)
Credits
- All songs written, performed, recorded, produced, mixed, with art direction and layout by Helena Eve Walker.
All songs performed, recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by Henry C Sharpe. Additional engineering [2, 4], production [2] and mixing [6] by Jonny Allan at The Louisiana Studio, Bristol.
Photography [cover art, insert] by Sarah Rose Currie.
Photography [centre stickers, insert] by Chris Pugh.
Pressing Information
Vinyl edition
500 high quality, 140 gram, hand-poured "Pastoral Swirl" color vinyl LPs with full color, photo labels. LPs are packaged in extra heavyweight, full color, photo jackets with 11" x 17", 3-color, Risograph printed, fold-out poster inserts with complete album lyrics. 9 tracks, 41 minutes.
Please note that each of the "Pastoral Swirl" hand-poured color vinyl LPs will be a unique mixture of clear, coke bottle clear, light green & neutral opaque shades. No two copies will look the same!
Vinyl pressed by Smashed Plastic in Chicago, IL.
Inserts printed by Issue Press in Grand Rapids, MI.
Jackets printed by Stoughton Printing in City of Industry, CA.
Cassette edition
Professionally dubbed Ferric tapes in green tinted shells imprinted with white ink. Tapes are packaged in full color, 5-panel J-cards w/ complete lyrics & clear Norelco boxes. 9 tracks, 41 minutes.
50 copies for North America (Orindal), 50 copies for UK/EU (Gold Day).
North American copies manufactured by National Audio.
All orders include a digital download of the entire album, available on the August 29, 2025 release date.
Hear as the Mirror Echoes vinyl is distributed by The Business & Revolver / Midheaven.