label: Windham Hill Records country of origin: USA style(s): New acoustic, folk, ambient, jazz essential compilations: Windham Hill: The First 10 Years (1990) Sanctuary: 20 Years Of Windham Hill (1996)

The American label Windham Hill pioneered new acoustic music - though some of it’s artists also use electronics - to the extent that the label has almost became a genre in itself. No need, it seems, to use words like folksy, melodic and moody: it’s just “Windham Hill”. But while label founder William Ackerman detests the new age tag, the label's output does have that post-Age Of Aquarius feel about it, appealing as it does to an affluent, upwardly mobile generation that's left behind joss sticks for mobile phones but still needs something to sooth their frazzled nerves in a brave new corporate 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.

So Windham Hill's music is not exactly unsettling, but so what? During the 70's and 80's the label evolved a wonderful brand of pristine, neo-classical impressionism that at best is simultaneously relaxing and engaging. There's the gorgeous pastoral guitar of William 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 ends up lifeless and bland.

The label has released over 50 "various artist" compilations but, in truth, much of the label’s best output can be found on a handful of original artist albums by Ackerman, Winston, Hedges and a number of others. Too many of the compilations are patchy: well played, immaculately recorded but with some tracks little more than earwash and bereft of any melodic or textural invention. The 10 Years and 20 Years albums, however, 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 behind it. Ackerman has now retired from the business and today, under the watchful eye of corporate daddy BMG Records, the label rarely comes up with anything more than cosy adult alternative pop and jazz for mums and dads.

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