Guitarists Keith Rowe and
Oren Ambarchi have collaborated on a number of occasions in recent years, on the Grob releases Honey Pie (with Robbie Avenaim) and Thumb (with Avenaim, Sachiko M, and Otomo Yoshihide) and more recently on the Erstwhile double-CD Cloud with 4G -- aka the Four Gentlemen of the Guitar (the other two being Toshimaru Nakamura and
Christian Fennesz) -- but
Flypaper is very much a duo affair. Those familiar with Rowe's slow-motion grainy drone and wisps of radio broadcasts and the warm glow of
Ambarchi's electronics (he's never as far as you might think from the delicious pop world he explores so well with Chris Townsend in the group
Sun) will find few surprises on offer in these four medium-length tracks, but much to appreciate. Not as intense as Rowe's Erstwhile collaboration with Nakamura, Weather Sky, but certainly more substantial and rewarding than Thumb,
Flypaper is a good place for newcomers to Rowe and
Ambarchi to get themselves stuck on. ~ Dan Warburton