About
Windham Hill Records was originally an independent label founded in 1976 by William Ackerman and Anne Robinson (2), who were married soon thereafter. It was originally known for folk and acoustic music but became associated with new age music after the success of George Winston's "Autumn" in 1980. Ackerman sold his half of the company to BMG in 1992 and Robinson sold her half in 1996. Since the 2004 merger between BMG and Sony Music Entertainment the label has issued no new recordings. They continue to reissue the back catalog and issue compilations as part of Legacy Recordings. Label Code: LC 9757 / LC 09757 There were at least two editions of nearly every record during the period when the label was distributed by A&M, from 1979 until 1992, a U.S. and a German and/or European release. Catalog numbers from 1976 until 1992 always had a prefix, a dash, and four numbers: XXXX The original sequence of catalog numbers for LPs released in the United States was WHS C-1xxx which was used until 1984. From 1984 until 1992 the sequence for LPs was WH-1xxx, and it included reissues of earlier Windham Hill releases. The final release in that sequence was WH-1107. There were also WHS-A-C 1xxx audiophile edition catalog numbers whcih were replaced by the WHA 1xxx catalog numbers. This sequence was discontinued in 1986. US compact discs were numbered WD-1xxx until 1992. Cassettes were numbered WT-1xxx. 12" singles were numbered WS-1xxx. German Edition, reissues sub-published by E.R.P. Musikverlag (Home of Kuckuck and other famous Labels) Format: TA-C-XXXX for LP's ? ? ? ? ? for CD's => please check out! TA-MC-XXXX for MC's Original European formats: 37XXXX-1 for LP's 37XXXX-2 for CD's 37XxXX-4 for MC's A&M versions were also released in Japan. CD releases began in December 1983 with only 5 titles (Ackerman's "Passages," "Solid Colors" by Liz Story, George Winston's "December," "Shadow Dances" by Shadowfax, and the label's 1982 sampler album); all other CDs must be from 1984 or later.
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Top Windham Hill Records Releases
Sub-labels
A Winter's Solstice
A multi-platinum selling series of Holiday-themed music that ran from 1985 to 2001, and featured tracks composed and performed by Windham Hill's then-current roster of artists. They featured prim...
Pure (17)
Compilation series from Windham Hill Records
Sounds of Wood & Steel
Series of three compilation albums on Windham Hill in association with Taylor Guitars. The compilations include a number of genres/styles, with a significant number being in the folk/new age styles...
Windham Hill Records CD Collection
Series of 4 Box Set manufactured by Pony Canyon Inc for Windham Hill Records.
Celtic Season
A Windham Hill Christmas Sampler/Collection series
High Street Records
As a former subsidiary label of Windham Hill Records, it was intended to be the singer/songwriter branch of the New Age label, but also included some rock and fusion releases. The label existed fr...
Windham Hill Jazz
In 1987, Windham Hill merged its jazz imprints Hip Pocket Records and Magenta (2) to form Windham Hill Jazz. The catalogs from both labels were reissued with the Windham Hill Jazz logo. ...
Dancing Cat Records
Dancing Cat Records was founded in 1983 by pianist George Winston. For the Breakbeat Hardcore / Nu-Rave label, please consider Dancing Cat Records (2). For the Dutch record label, pleas...
Open Air Records
[1987] A division of
Lost Lake Arts
Lost Lake Arts was a division of Windham Hill Productions, Inc. Albums were issued with the Windham Hill plastic liner with Windham Hill-styled covers and typography. Windham Hill said that the la...
Hip Pocket Records
US label founded in 1984 by steel drummer Andy Narell, Hip Pocket Records entered a manufacturing and distribution deal with Windham Hill. In 1987, the label was merged into [l=Windham Hill Ja...
Select Sounds
Series of promotional compilations released with label catalogue "The Windham Hill Occasional" in order to provide audio examples of the releases listed therein. Therefore, the individual CDs are t...
A Windham Hill Collection
Series
Windham Hill Classics
Series (not a label) run by Windham Hill Records as "benefits from state of the art mastering using the very latest 24 bit digital sampling technologies"
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Mill Valley, CA