New Age Guitar
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New age built on acoustic guitar — steel-string fingerstyle, nylon-string and flamenco-tinged playing — in warm, melodic, often open-tuned instrumentals that emphasize resonance, harmonics and gentle groove over rock energy. Arrangements range from intimate solo guitar to light ensemble with percussion and synth, and the mood is calm, romantic and evocative. It spans the meditative fingerstyle of Windham Hill and the sun-warmed "nouveau flamenco" of the 1990s, cross-listing with acoustic and ambient-guitar wellness music.
History
Acoustic new-age guitar was defined by Windham Hill, founded by guitarist William Ackerman in 1976, and by its virtuoso Michael Hedges, whose Aerial Boundaries (1984) revolutionized fingerstyle technique with two-hand tapping and radical open tunings. Alex de Grassi extended the label's lyrical style. In the 1990s Ottmar Liebert's Nouveau Flamenco (1990) and players like Jesse Cook and Craig Chaquico brought a warmer, rhythmic Spanish-guitar flavor to huge adult-contemporary audiences. The style remains a staple of relaxation, dinner and spa listening.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Windham Hill Records label history
- Wikipedia article: Aerial Boundaries
- AllMusic artist biography: Ottmar Liebert