Early division of Narada Productions, Inc.
Active ~ 1981-1990.
In their first stage, they helped to define the current image of "Classic New Age". Not the commercial side, mere the die-hard and freeform aspect of it. Small editions of primarly tape-only and some vinyl albums allowed unknown and experimental artists to get in touch with a smaller or wider audience.
The bandwith of releases spreads from zen flute music (Riley Lee) to solo acoustic jazz/folk (Gabriel Lee, Spencer Brewer, Judith Pintar) to avantgarde experimentalism (Allaudin Mathieu, Paul Michael) avant-lounge-jazz (Stephen Winfield, Gary Knox) to electronic spacemusic and ambient (Tim Story, Don Robertson, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Larkin, Michel Genest, Aeoliah). Here, the focus remains on the psychedelic, tranquil, minimalistic and micro-tonal.
With the success of releases on other sublabels that incorporated ethno-grooves and adult listening jazz, Sona Gaia changed its direction after Yoshimuras "Green".
And the sound became more influenced by pop, rock and jazz: so-called "New Age Fusion". Artists to point out here are Ancient Future (Ethno-Jazz) and Michael Gettel (Jazz-Rock).
Sona Gaia had often duplicate releases with Antiquity Records which, from 1987 on, continued with the more experimental side of New Age.
)