''Aerial Boundaries'' is the second album by guitarist

Michael Hedges Michael Alden Hedges (December 31, 1953 – December 2, 1997) was an American acoustic guitarist and songwriter. He was known as a virtuoso who used unorthodox playing techniques, and much of his output was classified as new age music. Hedges ...

released on the

Windham Hill Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson (née McGilvray) in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The label was ...

label in 1984. It was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

as Best Engineered Recording.

Reception

Music critic Daniel Gioffre, writing for

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, wrote of the album "There are moments on Aerial Boundaries where it seems literally impossible that so much music is coming from one man and his guitar... The songs on Aerial Boundaries are all beautiful and haunting in their own right; and it is this emphasis on composition over technique that makes this such an important recording... Aerial Boundaries is simply one of the finest acoustic guitar albums ever made, and deserves a place in the library of all serious music fans."

Track listing

All compositions by Michael Hedges except "After the Gold Rush" by

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

. * Tracks 1-4 & 6 recorded in the Living Room at the Windham Hill Inn, West Townshend, VT. * Track 5 recorded at Sheffield Studio,

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

, MD. * Track 7 realized at the Peabody Electronic Music Studio, Baltimore, MD. * Track 8 recorded at Mobius Music,

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, CA. * Track 9 recorded at Different Fur Studios, San Francisco, CA.

Personnel

* Michael Hedges – acoustic guitar *

Michael Manring Michael Manring (born June 27, 1960) is an American bass guitarist from the San Francisco Bay Area. Biography Michael Manring was born in Annapolis, Maryland,Tom Mulhern, ''Bass Heroes: Styles, Stories & Secrets of 30 Great Bass Players : from ...

– fretless bass ("After the Gold Rush", "Ménage à Trois") *

Mindy Rosenfeld Mindy Rosenfeld is an American flutist, piper and harpist, noted as a founding member of the Baltimore Consort, specializing in Renaissance music. She is also credited as Mindy Rosenfeld Hedges. Life and career Mindy Rosenfeld, graduated with a B ...

– flutes ("Ménage à Trois")

Production notes

* Produced by Will Ackerman, Michael Hedges, Steven Miller * Engineered by Steven Miller, Oliver Di Cicco, Bill Mueller, Michael Hedges

References

{{Authority control 1984 albums Michael Hedges albums Windham Hill Records albums Albums produced by William Ackerman