A Winter's Solstice- Silver Anniversary Edition

A Winter's Solstice II The Winter Solstice series from Windham Hill is an appealing souvenir from the label's early days, when guitarist Will Ackerman still served as its chief guiding light and fount of original thought. For years Ackerman shunned the overt commercial trappings of traditional Christma...	A Winter's Solstice VI	A Winter's Solstice, Vol. 5	A Winter's Solstice III	A Windham Hill Christmas The songs are familiar carols, but A Windham Hill Christmas retains the Windham Hill Winter Solstice series tradition of unusual arrangements and performances that evoke the mood of the season, especially if your take on that mood is a Northeast, snow-covered landscape, like that...
A Winter's Solstice, Vol. 4 In 1993, Windham Hill Records released its fourth album of seasonal music recorded by the label's artists and unavailable in any other collection. Only a few of the tracks on A Winter's Solstice IV lend credence to the label's unfair stereotype as the home for new age background ...	A Windham Hill Christmas: The Night Before Christmas Windham Hill holiday albums are a staple of the Christmas season and they say peace, tranquility and good will to all like few instrumental offerings. Usually played on acoustic guitars and pianos tuned to a slight new age bent by musicians who have come to define the Windham Hil...	Windham Hill Christmas II	Windham Hill Christmas: I'll Be Home for Christmas The Windham Hill regulars are back with another unhurried compilation of holiday songs, both old and new. Fans of the previous sets will indubitably love this one too; that these are highly skilled musicians is beyond question. But people who tend to prefer jazz, classical or wo...	A Winter's Solstice: Windham Hill Artists

New Age Wonder
This is a perfect collection for the holidays, or any occasion. I have the complete Winter Solstice set, and lost the first album in a divorce. This seems to be out of print, but found a like new, perfect one on Amazon. I would highly recommend these for anyone who likes to sit and comfortably relax to soothing music. Steve

Instrumental relaxation
Mellow, almost too much so, instrumental only. Would be good for background in a store of someplace, but not engaging.

This is how traditions begin
This disc is way, way up there among the best in the series - and this whole series is a "must have" in my book. Most of the songs in this series, and certainly in this disc, would not be considered traditional Christmas music. But for me, the season would lose much of it's charm without this playing in my home. Traditions become traditions because they are enjoyable, and if you give this series (and especially this volume) a chance, you won't regret it. Lastly, the 30th anniversary of Windham Hill Winter's Solstice discs came and went in 2006. Too bad - a commemorative effort would have been most welcome.

Solstice goes back to its original style with maturity
This is one of the best "Solstice" albums. There is a maturity to the choices on this album which has been lost on the last two "solstice" albums. All are new selections by Liz Story, Philip AAberg. W.G. Snuffy Walden (West Wing theme) is also represented. All in all this is a very enjoyable offering. Highly recommended.

Seasonal mood music to surround yourself in
This CD and likewise this review is aimed at those who know Windham Hill and appreciate the music put out by the company. It seems logical to presume that if you're reading this review, you enjoy the music that embraces new age, world, smooth jazz and light classical genres. Indeed, as others have pointed out, this is a new recording and has different material than the original Winter's Solstice. In fact, I'll admit that I was disappointed not to find "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" here. Nevertheless, this is uplifting and inspiring music for the season. You'll find some traditional such as "Greensleeves", "Come All Ye Shepherds", "Down In Yon Forest", along with Handel's "Col Partir La Bella Clori", Orlando Gibbons' "The Silver Swan", and the notable "Queen's Prayer" by Hawaii's last queen, Queen Lili'uokalani. But you'll also find the originals composed by some of the performers such as Richard Schonherz, Tracy Silverman, Jim Brickman, W.G. Snuffy Walden, Will Ackerman and Philip Aaberg, Liz Story, and Tim Story to be the equal if not sometimes better than ther older ones.This is for those who can find a depth of sound and beauty in quiet and simple music, who can enjoy the depths of the instrumentation without thinking it bland, boring or repetitive.