Album Review: Echo from Deep Valley by Ho Lan

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Album Name: Echo from Deep Valley

Artist: Ho Lan

Year/Label: 2006 / Mandala

Now here’s something I don’t hear everyday. Ho Lan is a Taiwanese guitarist, singer, whistler and yodeler. No, I’m not kidding. She doesn’t really qualify for a review on the site because these are not her original compositions. But she just seemed too fascinating to pass up.

Her life sounds really interesting. She had no formal training and learned to sing by heading out to nature and “singing against roaring waterfalls and mimicking bird songs”. She became a music teacher at 18. Well, I won’t spoil too much more of it for you. You can read about her on her website (link below)

Some of these songs sound like your basic hotel lounge fare…a Chinese hotel of course as she sings some songs in Mandarin. But she also sings in Spanish. No really! All these tracks were recorded in the 70s but were unreleased until now.

All in all it’s really a nice peaceful record that would be really nice background music for a dinner party.

Track Listing

1. Maria Elena
2. Cucurrucucu, Paloma
3. La Malaguena
4. Granada
5. Ikaw
6. Hawaiian Wedding Song – Ke Kali Ne Au
7. Indian Love Call
8. Home on the Range
9. Echo from Deep Valley
10. Jasmine Blossom
11. Heart’s Wish

Ho Lan Official Site

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