Michael Bisio / Matthew Shipp — Flow of Everything (Fundacja Sluchaj)
Photo by Marek Lazarski
Flow Of Everything by Michael Bisio & Matthew Shipp
There are no strangers on this album. Bassist Michael Bisio and pianist Matthew Shipp have worked together for over a decade and shared space nearly twenty records, including two previous duos. And if you’re listening, you’ve probably not a stranger either; you might not be on speaking terms with either musician, but you know what they do. Given the known knowns, what do you need to know about Flow of Everything?
It almost goes without saying that the two men manifest an audible rapport, but that concord is still worth celebrating. From the first minute of the first track, when Shipp digs into a static rumble while Bisio runs fleet finger-sprints, this album attests anew to their ability to simultaneously pursue their own ends and complement each other’s. And you don’t have to wait much longer — about two minutes into “Flow,” to be exact — to hear them develop a dizzyingly complex lattice from independent lines. Likewise, you might be correspondingly unsurprised to hear that they can plumb depths of dark romanticism, but that doesn’t make the path that Bisio’s keening arco takes through Shipp’s multi-linear meditation on “Bow For Everyone” any less affecting.
If you’ve been listening a while, you’ll smile with recognition at the swinging stride that launches “Of Everything.” You might still get a jolt of surprise at the precise moment that Shipp bolts for an elaborate foray, leaving it to Bisio to keep that saunter going, but you won’t be surprised at the airborne elegance of the maneuver. And the lyrical reverie of “Go Flow” will remind you, not inform you, of the pianist’s capacity for delicacy, and the calligraphic enhancement of the elaborations that the bassist draws across the Shipp’s phrases.
So, Flow Of Everything doesn’t really tell you things you don’t know. Like the new flowering of a perennial bloom, or the confirming truths of a sermon addressing concerns you already ponder, it tells you again what you need to hear. Would you pass up a chance to catch up with an old friend just because you have a good idea how the evening’s going to go? Not when you consider the good it’ll do your heart to hear what you already know deepened, enriched and elaborated upon in ways that will make you smile. If those are acceptable terms, then go ahead and give yourself up to the flow.
