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Gareth Davis & Machinefabriek, "Ghost Lanes"
By my count, Rutger Zuydervelt has logged nearly 100 releases since Machinefabriek's inception in 2004, making it extremely easy for his best work to get missed or overlooked.  Fortunately, this one managed to catch my attention, as Davis's skwonking contrabass clarinet may very well be the perfect foil for Rutger's somber drones and crackles.  The likable first half of this improvised collaboration was recorded back when the duo first met in 2009 and has already been issued once as a limited 3" CDr, but the truly excellent second half came together more recently and makes its first appearance here.
The 23-minute "Ghost Lanes," which consumes the entire first side of this album, is by far the more abstract of the two pieces and definitely betrays its improvised origin.  Rutger plays guitar, but it is rarely recognizable as such for the first ten minutes or so.  Instead, he slowly builds a sound bed from loops of sundry crackles, scrapes, and amp noises, leaving the melodic heavy lifting to Davis.  Gareth makes a valiant effort, but he is basically adrift in pretty formless and uninspiring territory.  As a result, "Ghost Lanes" is essentially a heavily reverbed clarinet solo subtly augmented by a low repeating swell and Zuydervelt's textural contributions.  There isn't much of a flow to it, but Gareth's oft-sputtering playing is still unpredictable and inventive enough to keep me interested, especially during the moments where he closely approximates an upset and disoriented elephant.  While Rutger's playing becomes a bit more prominent near the end of the piece, his single repeating notes and muted swells are ultimately too minimalistic to leave much of an impression on me.
The 16-minute "Mackerel Sky" is an entirely different story, however.  Zuyderwelt's playing remains extremely minimal in nature, but instantly creates a tense and melancholy mood with just two repeating harmonics that hypnotically shudder and oscillate.  Gradually, he fills out the sound with spectral swells and a masterful array of fluttering and billowing guitar noises.  Gareth is more restrained this time around, which makes perfect sense, as the simmering bed of uneasy guitar shimmer could easily stand on its own.  He's not merely along for the ride though: his fluid minor key runs and intermittent strangled squawks enhance Machinefabriek's brooding atmosphere nicely and provide the piece with much of its satisfying dynamic arc.  The fact that it even has a dynamic arc is pretty noteworthy in itself: "Mackerel Sky" escalates and ebbs surprisingly effectively for an improvisation, despite the fact that the slow-burning build-up is more powerful than the actual crescendo.  Davis and Zuydervelt intertwine and complement other remarkably intuitively for two artists that rarely play together–it's a great piece.
That said, Ghost Lanes will probably not induce me to immediately plunge headlong into Davis and Zuyderwelt's solo discographies, as it seems like this collaboration (the "Mackerel Sky" half, at least) is quite a bit more than the sum of its parts.  Still, I could probably not ask for a more impressive introduction to Gareth's work and I now wonder what other treasures I've missed in Rutger's vast discography.  This isn't quite an unqualified success, but it definitely has some sustained flashes of greatness: I have rarely heard free-jazz and drone music intersect as seamlessly and enjoyably as they do during Ghost Lanes' best moments.
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