Search - Various Artists :: Ecm Selected Recordings 9-22

How could you turn down this deal?

Ryan Wepler | Waltham, MA | 09/28/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The deal offered for this set--12 discs of material for $18--caused me to break two deeply ingrained tendencies for music purchases. I rarely buy compilation cds, and I had never bought MP3s through online downloads (I like to have the disc and artwork, even though I usually listen to it on an iPod). I also think this is a savvy deal for ECM as well, as it will likely expose listeners to a broader range of their very diverse catalogue, allowing them to, in the end, sell more of their (typically very expensive) cds.



As this is over 14 hours of incredible music for an almost unbelievably low price, it is five stars all the way. There are a few small drawbacks to the set worth mentioning. First, it does not include absolutely ALL of the material from the Rarum cds (Egberto Gismonti's "Cavaquinho" and Carla Bley's "Ictus" are two songs available on the Rarum cds that are left off of the box set download), but NEARLY everything is there. Second, because most of these musicians worked on a lot of diverse projects, these aren't really cds made for listening to as cohesive collections of songs. The musical styles and setting change dramatically (and somewhat jarringly) from song to song. Nearly all of it is beautiful music, no doubt, but you never get the coherence you would expect from a single album.



One final thing to note is that a few of the musicians seem a bit obscure to me. Maybe they're more well known in Europe than in the US. I'm mystified as to why there are no Rarum collections for ECM all stars Kenny Wheeler and Paul Bley, as they seem significantly more prominent than, for example, Jon Christensen and Arild Andersen, though I enjoyed hearing their work as well.



If you've never downloaded music from amazon before (as I hadn't), it's very easy. Installing the downloader takes only a few seconds and after I purchased the music, my iTunes opened automatically and began importing the songs. It couldn't have been more convenient!"

Great music and an UNBELIEVABLE deal

Bryan Case | Washington | 08/29/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not usually a sampler fan, but having recently delved deeper into jazz, I ran across this while I was looking for new artists to try. While some of this is older work (going back to the 1970's), it covers a broad range of years, styles, and artists. ECM/Rarum is all first rate, modern jazz. This is not second tier stuff. And to get 12 discs for only $18, unbelievable! Try looking up how much it costs to buy the CD version. I'll save you the trouble - it's $223. This is well worth a look."

A life of surprises

steven appler | owls head maine | 06/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Whenever I take a long trip, I of course need to make a couple of cd's of road music. Having been especially busy and rushed, I ventured into the quick planning of a couple of road trip music purchases and stumbled upon this deal via a Pat Metheny search. 120 plus songs for less than two cds? How can this be? My work was done, and with a press of a button and about 25 minutes of download later, my road trip music to Maine was done. And what a surprise it was. So many artists I had never heard of, so much delightful music. If ECM's goal was to give their artists more exposure this has worked. I already plan to buy more by Eberhard Weber, which I would not have found otherwise, and as far as matching music to the landscape, EMC and Maine are cinematic. the best $20 I have spent in years. BUY IT NOW!!!! You will not be disappointed."