Windham Hill Chill: Ambient Acoustic

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 7, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B00007GZNI
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,994 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Vol De Nuit - The Paul Schwartz Project

2. To The One Who Knows - Yanni

3. Raffles In Rio - Mark Isham

4. Cool At Heart - Tangerine Dream

5. One Night In Vienna - Schonherz And Scott

6. Ragas In Minor Scale - Ravi Shankar

7. Glamorous Glennis - Philippe Saisse

8. Malevolent Landscape - Patrick O'Hearn

9. Marooned - Balligomingo

10. Miserere - State Of Grace

See all 14 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Morning With The Roses, A - Richard Dworsky

2. Rickover's Dream - Michael Hedges

3. Cloudburst - George Winston

4. After The Harvest - Angels Of Venice

5. Western - Alex De Grassi

6. Dream Of Taliesin, The - Jeff Johnson/Brian Dunning

7. Marias River Breakdown - Philip Aaberg

8. Sheila's Pictures - Will Ackerman

9. Prelude In C With Ave Maria - Gayle Levant/Tommy Morgan

10. Wedding Rain - Liz Story

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An OK-sounding album, but very little new or interesting, January 8, 2003

By 

William Merrill "eclecticist" (San Antonio, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Windham Hill Chill: Ambient Acoustic (Audio CD)

This is really more just a label sampler than a successful "chill" compilation. Windham Hill has put out many excellent collections in the past, most notably the underrated and genre-setting "Path" CD. That was a CD with many new tracks and new artists. It really opened my mind up to some great music. This new "chill" set does a very poor job of backing up the boast from the album's subtitle - "30 essential tracks from the original chill out label."

Start with disc one, the "ambient" disc. So many of the cuts are from previous albums - even from previous W.H. collections! Often this is the 3rd or even 4th compilation appearance for some tunes! Windham Hill is getting like Higher Octave, endlessly re-packaging the same songs over and over. Some of these cuts are not even "ambient." The Ravi Shankar theme is nice enough, but isn't "chill" OR "ambient." It clashes with the other songs on disc one. The piece from Yanni is like watered-down Vangelis. Of course he is from the Tesh school of muzak and doesn't really belong on any compilation looking for credibility anyhow.

The 2nd disc, "acoustic," has some excellent themes from Nightnoise, Will Ackerman, and others. Again, though, many of the songs have been anthologized to death already. If you own just about ANY W.H. compilation, you've probably already got "Rickover's Dream" from Michael Hedges and "Wedding Rain" from Liz Story. Instead of putting out the same music again, it would be much better if Windham Hill would come up with something new for a change.

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wonderful, Magical Unicorn Should Not Have its Horn Used, May 19, 2003

By 

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

This review is from: Windham Hill Chill: Ambient Acoustic (Audio CD)

As a horse-shoe ringer-spike. I mean all of these musicians, are well-accomplished artists and have performed for many-many fans. Yes, I was leary about that 3-star rating and Windham Hill's compilations are mostly masterpieces. It's a Great Deal and a Super Listen both magical and thunderous, delicate and sweeping and highly thought-provoking. This music sounds nice with a portable; but will really make your home stereo come alive. This music is 10 stars. All pieces are flawless,(personally)I like playing disk #2 first---Ave Maria is one of my favs. So don't delay. Buy this masterpiece today! It's great!

5.0 out of 5 stars We All Need to Chill a little, October 18, 2011

By 

Drumrdan - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Windham Hill Chill: Ambient Acoustic (Audio CD)

Windham Hill artists have always been some of my favorites in this genre of music. If you want to kick back and unwind from the days stress this collection is a Great choice !