Windham Hill Celebrating 50th With Film, LP, Events

As Windham Hill Records turns 50 this year, the label’s epilogue is coming into focus with a long–in-the-works documentary that’s nearing completion, a newly announced Bay Area concert and celebration and a crowd-funded project saluting the 40th anniversary of the popular Winter Solstice compilation series.

Founded by guitarist Will Ackerman, whose first recording was financed with a $300 loan from friends, Windham Hill quickly established a signature instrumental sound through clean, melodic, acoustic-forward compositions that were both intimate and transportive (it was also perpetually maligned by the descriptor”new age music,” which its artists came to detest).

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As part of the anniversary, Windham Hill artists, staff and fans will converge Nov. 1 on Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, Ca., for a full day of panels, conversations and live performances. The daytime programming will dig into the label’s history, aesthetic and cultural impact, before giving way to an evening concert featuring to-be-announced artists spanning the Windham Hill catalog. The event will also double as a live shoot for director Tal Skloot’s in-progress A Quiet Revolution, which is loaded with new interviews, archival footage and performance segments that chart how the label became a defining force in late-20th-century instrumental music.

Artists including Ackerman, Philip Aaberg, Alex De Grassi, Barbara Higbie, Michael Manring, Darol Anger and Liz Story appear in the film, alongside archival interviews with mainstays such as the late George Winston and Michael Hedges. Their presence underscores what made Windham Hill resonate so deeply: a roster of virtuoso players who prioritized feeling over flash at a time when pop and rock were growing increasingly maximalist.

Running parallel to the documentary and Berkeley event plans is a crowd-funded compilation project tied to another Windham Hill milestone — the 40th anniversary of its Winter’s Solstice series. Rather than simply reissuing past material, the label is taking a participatory approach, inviting submissions from across its extended network of artists and collaborators to shape an entirely new collection.

The project reunites key figures from the original series, including producer Dawn Atkinson and Bob Duskis, with Ackerman serving as executive producer. “I always love hearing from people that the Winter’s Solstice albums are still part of their holiday celebrations,” says Atkinson. “Those recordings have meant so much to so many listeners over the years. This album will be more than a reunion — it will be a bridge between past and present, resulting in something beautiful that carries the story forward.”

Adds Ackerman, “I’m thrilled with the idea of a new album created in the spirit of these compilations that are so loved by so many. There couldn’t be a better team to capture the essence of what we created years ago. Dawn Atkinson and Bob Duskis worked closely with me for many years during the heyday of Windham Hill. They were instrumental in signing new artists and overseeing the production of many of those recordings.”

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