“A characteristically cinematic, textured slice of ambient folk which evokes both the slow aftermath of trauma and the slower process of transcending its overbearing weight.” So we wrote of ‘Seventeen’, the lead single from herbal tea‘s debut full length Hear as the Mirror Echoes, back in July, though the description could equally hold for the record as a whole. The recording project of Bristol‘s Helena Walker, herbal tea takes the DIY intimacy of bedroom pop and expands outwards, building what might otherwise be humble demos into rich, nuanced soundscapes, as though the original basis of each track is merely a door through which entire new worlds lie in wait.
The result is a sound rooted in the personal yet innately transcendent. An ethereal space not unlike a dream, stitched together from memories, desires and nostalgic longing yet impermanent by its very nature. A place, that is, removed from the physical demands on existence and thus the ideal vantage for self-reflection. One imbued with the weightlessness of flying or floating which offers the opportunity to examine the familiar without the everyday burden of the body.
With the album set for release later this month via Gold Day Recordings (UK) and Orindal Records (US), herbal tea has now returned with brand new single, ‘Submarine’, and again the disembodied motif is distinct. This time, as the title suggests, the world Walker creates is not so much ethereal as aquatic, her vocals submersed within textures dark and heavy and not without beauty, a half-alien world mirrored beneath our own. “When I wrote ‘Submarine’, I thought I was poking at old wounds, but now the meaning keeps shifting as time goes by,” Walker explains. “It touches on the feeling of wanting to disappear into a safe place, in the night, where you feel invisible.” The song is a great example of the tone of Hear as the Mirror Echoes, where ethereal does not necessarily equal airy, and an escape from the physical present needn’t necessitate removing all depth and gravity.
Down in the soil,
up in smoke,
a huff of heavy fumes
Trying not to think of then,
when she was always hiding
Watch the video filmed and edited by Walker along with Henry C Sharpe below:
Hear as the Mirror Echoes will be released via Orindal Records and Gold Day on 29th August. Pre-order it now from the herbal tea Bandcamp page.
Photo by Sarah Rose Currie