The program Splits & Circles deals with divisions - what happens when political issues drive a family apart, a young mother has to leave her country, or the search for one's own identity leads to alienation at first. But it also tells stories of the everlasting comforting vastness of nature, of circles that close, of coming together, of letting each other be and poses the question of whether the growing self-optimization hype in the west can perhaps lead to more individual and therefore whole-societal peace after all.
The simultaneity of these opposites is what fascinates Spaemann and Bakanic just as much as the diversity of their musically different influences. Whether in a soulful pop song or a tango-influenced instrumental piece, the two musicians are interested in the many timbres that can be elicited from the cello and accordion. They play a game that ranges between chamber music and produced songs, in which the live vibe is never lost, but in which a pop song can also be a pop song.