Shape of the Land

Shape of the Land | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 1, 1991)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Windham Hill Records
• ASIN: B000008KMH
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,615 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Audio CD

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shines from afar like ..., June 4, 2003

By 

"bobnjulie01" (Bay Saint Louis, MS United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shape of the Land (Audio CD)

A diamond, a masterpiece! I remember when this was first released and it was a bargain to behold. I couldn't pronounce the man's name Aceberg, Ahberg whatever but it was the first time I heard Philip Aaberg's work and I kept playing it around the clock. Now, it's June 2003 and I love to play it in the garden and sip on some chamomile tea and I laugh when kids come by and ask," what is that great sounding music?" It just seems to fit the out-of-doors.And bonus work from Will Ackerman and Michael Hedges add remarkable ambience.The music is dedicated to the memory of Naomi Uemura who, while travelling alone in 1984, disappeared descending Mount McKinley into an icy storm. Naomi Uemura was a bold, Japanese adventurer who ascended the highest mountains on all continents and rafted the entire Amazon River, alone.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 stars... Great collection of Windhal Hill artists at their peak, November 27, 2009

By 

Paul Allaer (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shape of the Land (Audio CD)

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day, and that means I dig into my collection of music I don't much play otherwise, and it may not necessarily be "seasonal" music. Instead, I tend to play some of the many Windham Hill albums from the mid/late 80s I have, which was then referred to as "new age" music. No idea how that nomiker came about, but whatever.

"The Shape of the Land" (released in 1986; 11 tracks; 40 min.) is the soundtrack to a documentary called "The Story of Naomi Uemura" (which I've never seen, by the way) but in reality it is an all-star collection of some of the Windham Hill greatest names at that times: Philip Aaberg (piano), Michael Hedges (guitar), Malcolm Dalglish (hammer dulcimer), Chuck Greenberg (lyricon)and of course Will Ackerman (the label's founder, guitar). This album is a delight from start to finish. Opener "Because It's There" showcases Michael Hedges. Philip Aaberg gets more tracks on here than anyone else, check out his beautiful piano playing on "Theme from Naomi Uemura" and "Come Back". The title tracks features an astounding interplay between Will Ackerman and Chuck Greenberg, one of the best tracks on here, as does "Processional". It all leads up to the last track of the album "Requiem for a Mountain Climber", where all of the all-stars are featured in a truly amazing fashion.

In the rich Windham Hill catalogue of the 1980s, "The Shape of the Land" is a highlight. Listening to this again now 23 years after the original release of this album, it sounds as fresh and innovative now as it did then, just remarkable. While it has absolutely no connection to the 'seasonal' music one is usually expecting for this time of the year, this album resonates just beautifully for the Thanksgiving/Christmas time of the year. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine Windham Hill artists work, January 6, 2007

By 

Phasedin (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shape of the Land (Audio CD)

It seems that I keep reviewing recordings currently out of print. Oh well, perhaps this will be reissued sometime in the future. For fans of the ORIGINAL vision of the Windham Hill record label in the early 1980's and the artists who recorded for it at the time, you really couldn't do much better than this.

This one doesn't play at all like a movie soundtrack. It seems the films director (or somebody involved with the original movie) were already fans of the Windham Hill label and requested a bunch of it's artists to come up with some new, original music for the movie's soundtrack. The soundtrack does not consist of tunes pulled from these artists indvidual recordings-most the stuff here it seems was recorded in January 1986 specifically for the movie soundtrack, though I can't be 100%sure of that.

So what we have here is primarily acoustic music as was the original M.O. of the label at the time.

The primary contributor here is pianist Phillip Aaberg-who also plays synthesizers as well. I'm not sure of this, as the only Aaberg recording I have is only solo piano, but I think this may be a rare example of Aaberg actually playing synthesizers (though i'm not sure of what he's been up to on his more recent recordings). His synthesizer playing here is excellent and tasteful, and adds nicely to his acoustic piano, with not a hint of some of the cheesey sounding samples that the 80's produced with it's early digital syntesizers . It's something I wish Aaberg would do more of. I'd certainly like to hear it.

Also along for the ride is guitarist Michael Hedges who plays harp guitar on 2 tracks, as well as Windham Hill founder William Ackerman playing guitar with Shadowfax founder (the late) Chuck Greenberg on lyricon on one track, and Ackerman on another duet with violionist Charles Bisharat on another track. There is also one very nice track with Philip Aaberg on synthesizers along with Malcolm Dalglish on hammered dulcimer. Very nice. Primarily though, most of the tracks feature Philip Aaberg either alone, in duet or trio with other musicians. The final piece on the album is the only piece to feature more than 3 musicians, a larger scale piece for 7 musicians (possibly also with some additional overdubs on the string parts) which has Aaberg joined by several string players, with guitars by Will Ackerman and Michael Hedges.

If you were/are a fan of any of those early Windham Hill multi-artist "samplers" or compilations you will simply love this. Let's just hope the current large corporate management who now owns the rights to the Windham Hill catalog see fit to reissue this at some point...or find a remaining copy here or elsewhere which I suggest as well....