The Grammy Award for Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album is presented to recording artists for quality albums in the

new-age music New-age is a genre of music intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management to bring about a state of ecstasy rather tha ...

genre at the

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 ...

s, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the

National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. (NARAS), doing business as The Recording Academy, is an American Learned society, learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is widely kno ...

of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position". Originally called the Grammy Award for Best New Age Recording, the honor was first presented to Swiss musician

Andreas Vollenweider Andreas Vollenweider (born 4 October 1953) is a Swiss harpist. He is generally categorised as a new-age musician and uses a modified electroacoustic harp of his own design. He has worked with Bobby McFerrin, Carly Simon, Luciano Pavarotti and i ...

at the

29th Grammy Awards The 29th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 24, 1987, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Paul Simon won Album of the Year for ''Graceland'', and Burt Bach ...

in 1987 for his album '' Down to the Moon''. Two

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

s featuring

Windham Hill Records 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 ...

artists were nominated that same year. The

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

was founded by

William Ackerman William Ackerman (born November 16, 1949) is an American guitarist and record producer who founded Windham Hill Records. Career Early years Ackerman was born in Germany. His adoptive father was a professor of English at Stanford University. ...

, later an award nominee and

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

winner for the album ''

Returning In retail, a product return is the Action (philosophy), process of a customer taking previously purchased merchandise back to the retailer, and in turn receiving a :wikt:refund, refund in the original form of payment, exchange. Overview Many ret ...

''. From 1988 to 1991 the category was known as Best New Age Performance. from 1992 to 2023, the award was presented as Best New Age Album. Beginning in 2001, award recipients included the

producers Producer(s), The Producer(s), or co-producer(s) may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *Producer, a stakeholder of economic production * Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes t ...

engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while consider ...

, and/or mixers associated with the nominated work in addition to the recording artists. From 2023, the category has been known as Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album. While "new-age" music can be difficult to define, journalist

Steven Rea Steven Rea (also known as Steven X. Rea) is an American journalist, film critic,

described the genre as "music that is acoustic, electronic, jazzy, folky and incorporates classical and pop elements, Eastern and Latin influences, exotic instrumentation and environmental sound effects." According to the category description guide for the

52nd Grammy Awards The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards took place on January 31, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009. Neil Young was honored as the 2010 MusiCares P ...

, the award is presented for instrumental or vocal new-age albums "containing at least 51% playing time of newly recorded material", with seasonal recordings not being eligible. The addition of the award category reflected a "coming of age" of the music genre, though some musicians classified as new age dislike the term "new age" and some of its negative connotations.

Multiple wins

As of 2015,

Paul Winter Paul Winter (born August 31, 1939) is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He is a pioneer of world music and earth music, which interweaves the voices of the wild with instrumental voices from classical, jazz and world music. The ...

holds the record for the most wins in this category, having won six times (four times as the leader of the group

Paul Winter Consort The Paul Winter Consort is an American musical group. Bassist Eliot Wadopian has been a member. Discography Films *''Canyon Consort'' (1985) References External linksLiving Music- Paul Winter's record label {{Authority control American ...

). Winter is the only musician to win the award consecutively; he received an award in

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

for '' Spanish Angel'' as a member of his ensemble and another in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

for ''

Prayer for the Wild Things ''Prayer for the Wild Things'' is an album released by Paul Winter in 1994. The album was commissioned to accompany a painting by artist Bev Doolittle, which is also titled Prayer For The Wild Things. A portion of this painting is seen on the al ...

'' as a solo artist. Irish musician

Enya Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin (born 17 May 1961; anglicised as Enya Patricia Brennan) known mononymously as Enya, is an Irish singer and composer. With an estimated equivalent of over 80 million albums sold worldwide, Enya is the best-selli ...

has received four awards.

Kitarō Masanori Takahashi (高橋正則, ''Takahashi Masanori''; born February 4, 1953), professionally known as , is a Japanese musician, composer, record producer, and arranger noted for his electronic-instrumental music, and is often associated w ...

holds the record for the most nominations, with sixteen (with only one win, in 2001). All five volumes of Kitarō's ''

Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai ''Sacred Journey of Kūkai, Ku-Kai'' is a series of peace-themed albums by new age artist Kitarō, inspired by the classic Buddhist pilgrimage to the 88 sacred temples on Japan's island of Shikoku (see Shikoku Pilgrimage). Each album in the series h ...

'' series were nominated for Best New Age Album. Pianist

Peter Kater Peter Kater (born May 28, 1958) is a German-born American pianist, composer and Grammy Award winner. When he was four, he moved with his family from Germany to New Jersey. He studied classical piano at an early age. In 1977 when he was eighteen ...

held the record for most nominations without a win, with 12, until he finally won his first Grammy (for ''

Dancing on Water ''Dancing on Water'' is an album by Peter Kater, released on September 1, 2017. It earned Kater a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards The 60th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on January 28, 2018. The ...

'') in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

. He also holds the record from the most consecutive nominations, with 11, having been nominated every year between 2007 and 2018. Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai is the only artist to be nominated for more than one work within the same year—for the

42nd Grammy Awards The 42nd Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 23, 2000, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1999. Nominations were announced on January 4, 2000. Santana was the main ...

he was nominated alongside Paul Horn for ''Inside Monument Valley'' and for his own album ''Inner Voices''.

Recipients

Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.

References

;General * ;Specific

External links

Grammy.com: Best New Age Album at 53rd Annual Grammy Awards Pre-Telecast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grammy Award For Best New Age Album 1987 establishments in the United States Album awards Awards established in 1987 New Age Album

Multiple wins

Recipients

See also

References

External links