Angeline Bell - Echoes of the Orient Album

Angeline Bell, is a Malaysian piano teacher and composer whose creative path blossomed unexpectedly during isolation in March 2022. In just a few short years, she has built an expressive catalogue of music that blends romance, playfulness, and a deep cultural sensitivity.

Her previous collections—My Lyrical Notebook, My Quirky Notebook, My Garden Notebook, My Seaside Notebook, and her nature-inspired albums ARBOREUM and My Forest Notebook—showcase her ability to create vivid musical worlds. Her works have been performed by artists including Nikolas Sideris, and even earned a nomination for Best Contemporary Repertoire in the 2024 Art of Piano Education Awards.

Angeline’s newest album, Echoes of the Orient, brings her creative journey full circle. Inspired by her childhood memories of growing up in Malaysia, this collection carries strong emotional threads of nostalgia, warmth, and cultural depth. Each piece feels like a doorway into the landscapes and stories that shaped her early life.

The recordings—released by Naxos World—feature beautifully sensitive performances by Katie Yao Morgan (piano) and Xiao Wang (Erhu). Together, they bring Angeline’s compositions to life with a blend of clarity, tenderness, and expressive nuance. It’s an album that feels both intimate and cinematic, inviting listeners into an atmosphere rich with personal history.

While the album is full of gems, the track that resonated with me the most is “Wa Ha Ha.” I’ve added it to the Neo Piano Library playlist because of its unique emotional character. There’s something wonderfully distinctive about it—it feels like a memory unfolding in sound. The music moves with an emotional arc that feels like taking a journey with Angeline herself: moments of lightness, introspection, and gentle intensity weave together as the piece progresses. By the time it concludes, you feel as though you’ve traveled through a whole story, carried by its atmosphere and expressive phrasing. It’s one of those pieces that lingers long after it ends.

You can purchase her sheet music on Musica Ferrum, Presto Music, Musicroom, MusicShopEurope, Hal Leonard and Amazon UK.