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Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson (née McGilvray) in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s.

The label was purchased by BMG through a series of buyouts from 1992 through 1996 and is currently a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment after BMG's subsequent merger in 2008. Private Music, also a subsidiary of BMG, has issued some back-catalog releases under the Windham Hill Records imprint. Since the Sony merger in 2007, Windham Hill has released no new material but reissues albums and compilations as part of Sony's Legacy Recordings brand.

In 1975, William Ackerman was a college dropout who played acoustic guitar on the Stanford University campus. Friends asked him to record his instrumental music for them on cassette. They chipped in so he could make an album, The Search for the Turtle's Navel (later renamed In Search of the Turtle's Navel). He gave copies to radio stations, which attracted an audience as well as California record store owners, and his albums began to sell. He founded the label with his then-girlfriend Anne Robinson in 1976. Ackerman invited like-minded musicians to the label, including Alex De Grassi, his cousin and an acoustic guitarist who became one of Windham Hill's best sellers. Ackerman began recording friends and fellow Bay Area musicians, and Robinson would market and design the albums.

Windham Hill produced music that was difficult to define, with elements of classical, folk, and jazz, nearly all of it instrumental, acoustic, and mellow. California-based Tower Records stores gave Windham Hill its own section. Billboard magazine called the music soft jazz in 1983, but later listed the label as new age. The roster included acoustic guitarists Michael Hedges, David Cullen, John Doan, and Andrew York. The label's albums topped the New Age and Contemporary Jazz charts in Billboard magazine. Albums of solo piano by George Winston crossed over into the Pop and Folk charts. Seven albums by Winston have been certified Gold and Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The staff concentrated on the quality of recording and pressing. Anne Robinson, a student of design, produced covers that were minimal, with a centered photograph of nature surrounded by a large white area. The albums were packaged in loose plastic rather than tight cellophane, and distributed in health-food stores and book stores.

"Sanctuary: 20 Years of Windham Hill" is a two CD set compilation featuring all of Windham Hill's most famous artists and finest tracks from the label's first two decades. The ground breaking artists on this compilation - including Windham Hill founder Will Ackerman, Michael Hedges, Billy Childs, George Winston, Turtle Island String Quartet, Tim Story, Philip Aaberg, Tuck & Patti, Nightnoise, Douglas Spotted Eagle, Ray Lynch, Mark Isham, and more - have won 35 Grammy Awards between them and sold over 25 million albums."

Sanctuary: 20 Years of Windham Hill is an excellent sampler of the new age label's history, featuring all of their most famous artists, as well as most of their best-known music. It's an excellent way to become acquainted with the label's history, and it also encapsulates everything Windham Hill was about. ~ Rodney Batdorf, Rovi 

Although some of its artists also used electronics, the American label Windham Hill pioneered new acoustic music to such an extent that during its peak years the label became a genre in itself. No need, it seems, to use words like folksy, melodic and moody: it’s just Windham Hill.

Certainly, founder/artist William Ackerman always detested the other tag that became synonymous with his label: new age. But the label's output did have that post-Age Of Aquarius feel about it, appealing as it did to an affluent generation that had left behind joss sticks for child-rearing but still needs something to sooth frazzled nerves in a stressful world. A review in Q Magazine summed it up thus: "As with Mike Oldfield's runaway successes 20 years ago, Windham Hill music is peaceful, folksy, melodic, anti-tech, an evocation of far horizons, untroubled wildlife, ley-lines and log cabins, but this time to cover the sound of your car being broken into outside." Ouch. And that's coming from a fan.

But removed from this questionable cultural context, the best Windham Hill material stands proud on its own terms. During the 70's and 80's the label evolved a quite wonderful brand of pristine, neoclassical impressionism that at best is simultaneously relaxing and engaging. There's the gorgeous pastoral guitar of Ackerman; the thoughtful, melodic piano solos of George Winston and Philip Aeberg; and the ethno-ambient soundscapes of trumpeter and synthesist Mark Isham. The label's jazzier ensemble output (Scott Cossu, Shadowfax) is usually best ignored - jazz channeled via Windham Hill's mannered, restrained sensibilities too often ended up bloodless and bland.

Over three decades the label released over 50 various-artist compilations - an enormous number - yet in truth much of the label’s best output can be found on a handful of original artist albums by Ackerman, Winston, Michael Hedges and a number of others. Regardless, The First 10 Years (1990) and 20 Years of Windham Hill (1996) do make excellent introductions. They score points as much for their enormous coverage as for their consistent quality. They're intelligently compiled with excellent sleeve notes and guaranteed to sort out pretty quickly whether or not Windham Hill has anything for your tastes.

Windham Hill's peak years are now well behind it and no more new material has appeared since 2004. Ackerman and his co-founder sold the label by the mid 90's, and under the watchful eye of corporate daddy BMG/Sony the label rarely came up with anything more than cosy adult-alternative pop and light jazz confections. - Mike G.

Long out of print and a rare 2-CD title, this is a FACTORY SEALED 2-CD set PRESSED and ISSUED by WINDHAM HILL of a highly collectible title from their catalog, featuring -

Various Artists (see below)

2-CD Title -

Sanctuary: 20 Years of Windham Hill

Track Listing -

Acoustic
1-1 –Jim Brickman Rocket To The Moon 2:30         
1-2 –William Ackerman Night Slip 2:17         
1-3 –Tracy Silverman and Thea Suits-Silverman Bizet: Intermezzo From Carmen 3:04         
1-4 –Michael Hedges Aerial Boundaries 4:40         
1-5 –Michael Manring Wide Asleep 5:49         
1-6 –Liz Story Wedding Rain 5:40         
1-7 –Alex De Grassi Children's Dance 2:38         
1-8 –Billy Childs Hand Picked Rose Of A Fading Dream 5:49         
1-9 –Douglas Spotted Eagle House Made Of Dawn Light 4:24         
1-10 –Metamora Siri's Arrival 3:28         
1-11 –Nightnoise Night In That Land 3:11         
1-12 –George Winston Hummingbird 4:59         
1-13 –Modern Mandolin Quartet Redonda 4:38         
1-14 –Turtle Island String Quartet Turning Twice 4:32         
1-15 –Ray Lynch Ivory 5:33         
1-16 –Tim Story Asleep The Snow Came Flying 4:34         
1-17 –Nightnoise Fionnghuala (Mouth Music) 1:56         

Electric
2-1 –Scott Cossu Manhattan Underground 3:53         
2-2 –Schönherz & Scott Daydreams 5:20         
2-3 –Torcuato Mariano A Very Special Place 6:04         
2-4 –Ira Stein And Russel Walder Transit 4:23         
2-5 –Andy Narell We Kinda Music (Edited Version) 5:06         
2-6 –Shadowfax A Thousand Teardrops 4:16         
2-7 –Philip Aaberg Every Deep Dream 4:13         
2-8 –Øystein Sevåg There's A Monk In My Garden 4:31         
2-9 –Ray Obiedo Blue Kiss 6:39         
2-10 –Montreux To Be 3:34         
2-11 –Philippe Saisse Rameau's Nephew 4:19         
2-12 –Mark Isham Pittsburgh 1901 (Theme From Mrs. Soffel) (Edited Version) 3:21         
2-13 –Mike Marshall and Darol Anger Dolphins 4:15         
2-14 –Fred Simon A View Of You 3:37         
2-15 –Tuck & Patti Tears Of Joy 3:52

The 2-CD set is from the rare WINDHAM HILL series of CDs.
  • CD catalog # 01934 11180-2
  • CD made in the USA
  • CD issued in 1996
  • • Art Direction – Candace Upman
    • Design [Graphic Design] – Sandy Del Rio
    • Edited By, Mastered By – Tom Carr
    • Executive-Producer – Betsy Walter, Tom Luekens
    • Photography By – Mark Laita

The 2-CDs, JEWEL CASE AND INSERTS are all assumed to be in mint overall condition as this item is actually FACTORY SEALED!

This CD is an audiophile quality pressing (any collector of fine MFSL, half speeds, direct to discs, Japanese/UK pressings etc., can attest to the difference a quality pressing can make to an audio system).

Do not let this rarity slip by!