5 stars, 1988, probably my favorite of the series. tunes, all instrumental are varied & substantial, yet they fit together. perfect mood music for introspection. no Xmas carols yet on this one. perfect for early seasonal music.

5 stars, 2001, for me this is the true followup to WS 2. same spirit & mood of WS 2. no Xmas carols here either, maintaining the focus of winter solstice. all instrumental.

5 stars, 1995, a solid collection but more like "Christmas Solstice" since half of the songs are Xmas carols. still, the songs fit together except for one slightly loud song.

5 stars, 2003, another winner, very much like volume 1 of this series.

5 stars, 2004, i like this cd except for the 1 vocal at the end by Samite (he seems to appear on alot of these cds).

4 stars, 1985, the classic initial volume. truly captures the cold, dark mystery of a winter's night. running time is shorter than those later in the series & being the first, i've overplayed mine.

4 stars, 1997, a mixed bag here. this is a return to the WS theme, no xmas carols here, but some light jazz pieces, one with sax, one with drums distract from the overall classical feel of the cd & the series. not a bad cd, just not as good as some of the others.

4 stars, 2000, i like this cd, the original instrumentals here are very good, 1 star off because i don't like the 2 vocals here by Samite because they disrupt the mood of the instrumentals. 2 Xmas carols appear here, the rest are WS.

4 stars, 1997, better than volume one, only a couple of cuts have a synthesizer, the rest are acoustic. 2 vocals sneak in, the great Loreena McKennitt & Janis Ian.

2 stars, 1990, my least favorite of the series. to me a misstep. i find the 4 vocal tracks distracting & rest of the instrumentals are too divergent to form any consistent mood. however, to be fair, other reviewers here say they like it, so to each his own. also, the first in the series to include a couple of xmas carols.

1997

1999

1995