My comment is directed not towards the music of World of Echo, which is quite beautiful, but towards the DVD portion. Like many others who were anxiously awaiting this reissue, I looked forward to actually viewing an Arthur Russell performance. The DVD was quite a let down. Two minimalist performance pieces filmed by Phil Niblock are included on it. They are, unfortunately, excruciatingly boring. I wanted to feel the intimacy that I felt was trying to be conveyed, but the poor film quality and hand-held shaky movements were too much of a distraction. The lengthy and slow close-ups of Russell's stubble, lips, nose and chin that comprise the first piece left me unaffected. Occasionally, Niblock lets the camera linger on the cello's body. Russell's movement with the bow is quite interesting, unfortunately you have to sit through a lot of grainy, slow moving stubble action before those moments arrive.

Given its limited numbers and previous unavailability, collectors of Russell's work will surely snap these up. However, if you're only after the music, then I would bypass the mixed media version and pick up the audio recording only.