Michael Bisio & Matthew Shipp: The Flow of Everything

Bassist Michael Bisio and pianist Matthew Shipp have enjoyed a near symbiotic relationship, ever since the former joined the latter's trio in 2009. The Flow Of Everything constitutes their third recording as a duet, following on from Floating Ice (Relative Pitch, 2012) and Live In Seattle (Arena Music Promotion, 2016), and maintains the preternaturally high standards they have set in the interim. Unsurprising as the pair represent two of the supreme stylists on their respective instruments, united by a go-anywhere attitude and a commitment to the magic of the moment.

In nine cuts rammed with absorbing micro-detail, the jostling contrapuntal interplay creates a constant flux of tension and resolution. The titular reference to "flow" proves particularly apt, as a stream of austere melody, reiterated figures and dazzling runs simultaneously emanate from keys and fingerboard, like twin slam poets in full spate. Such is the connection that it's easy to imagine Bisio's lines being played by piano and vice versa, interlocking as if the product of a single brain.

Amid the dashing surges and swirling eddies, rhythmic snags grab the ear. In the inaugural "Flow," a dark booming opening gives way to a prancing passage which comes on like a Bach variation, conjuring the image of a shaft of sunlight piercing the cloud. It alights on one of those repeated phrases which erupts unexpectedly and then goes on just that bit longer than might be anticipated. Such arresting episodes recur throughout the program.

However it's not all exhilarating forward motion. Bisio's creaking and wavering arco opens "Bow For Everyone," which evolves into a fraught ballad, merely the first of several examples of the form, one treated more romantically on "Everything" where the bassist's note-bending exploits extract the maximum pathos, and then again visited in translucent lyrical mode on "Go-flow."

Even among a veritable mountain range of peaks, "Of Everything" stands out. It begins with the sort of jazzy riff which has graced any number of Shipp trio outings and as such it's impossible to guess whether it stems from composition or extemporization, but the way they shift seamlessly back and forth between the swinging and the abstract is breathtaking, and affirms their place at the highest level.

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