Date:         Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:39:44 -0400
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:         Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: Wonderful Mercury Reissues
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The ArkivCD's should be CDR "clones" of now-out-of-catalog CD's. I tried a couple and they sound 
fine to my ears, keeping in mind that CDR media can be more fragile than manufactured CD's. Too bad 
they don't reproduce the booklets, which were sweated over profusely. Since Universal chose to take 
so much of the catalog out of print, this is the only way to hear a lot of this material if you 
missed the original CD's. Arkiv does a nice job keeping the brand alive. By the way, they have also 
reissued a bunch of other Universal material, particularly Decca and DGG. And they have a bunch of 
EMI and Sony/BMG reissues out there also. I think the ArkivCD program is now well north of 2000 
titles.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roderic G Stephens" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 12:06 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Wonderful Mercury Reissues


> Hi All,
>
> I've been very pleased with my Arkiv CD purchases in
> the past, but I thought you all should know about the
> Mercuries that are being reissued by the label, and
> I'd be interested in any comments regarding them by
> Tom Fine.
>
> This is from an email I just received from them:
>
> "It's been an audiophile extravaganza this month at
> ArkivMusic, with our sales on the fabulous BIS label
> from Sweden (lots of titles back in stock!) and the
> RCA Classic Film Scores series (my favorites this week
> are the film scores for Errol Flynn and the Prince
> Valiant Suite from Franz Waxman).
> We round out the month with one of the most
> fascinating audiophile labels of all, Mercury Living
> Presence. Mercury was a special label in many ways, an
> American company, from the heyday of classical
> recording in the U.S., that reproduced some of the
> most sonically realistic sounds at the dawn of the
> stereo era. Precious few stereo LPs were pressed when
> these recordings were issued, and they became some of
> the rarest and most collectible classical discs ever.
> ArkivMusic has now reissued over 60 releases from the
> Mercury catalog, all of which are on sale for a
> limited time."
>
> Rod Stephens
>