Founder and CEO (for a time) of Windham Hill, acoustic multi-instrumentalist/ expert producer William Ackerman claims responsibility for launching the gentle style of music into the mainstream in the 1970s and ’80s. Ackerman is lauded for his simple yet sophisticated acoustic stylings that excel in creating the ultimate relaxed atmospheres.
- Melissa Piazza

David Lanz is a superior keyboard player and a pioneering new age superstar. With a technique that’s flawless and easy on the ears, his lyrical ballads have the advantage over his more upbeat, vibe-positive numbers. If much of his work now resembles music for pharmaceutical commercials and TV dramas, it’s because TV producers use the the Lanz template to paint by numbers.
- Jeff K.

Boasting one of the best-selling Nature albums in history, Sequoia Records co-founders David and Steve Gordon are masters of the art of relaxation. In addition to gracefully capturing the music made by streams, swaying branches and birds (as typified on Garden of Serenity), this brotherly Southern California-based duo also successfully demonstrated on Sacred Earth Drums how tribal drumming and world instruments can soothe the troubled mind.
- Melissa Piazza