What sounds good? What do we like? Even after almost ten years, Matthias Bartolomey and Klemens Bittmann – both highly respected members of the Austrian string avant-garde – feel a strong drive to creatively discover their instruments and expand the relevant repertoire with the unheard and surprising. From the beginning, the focus of the two musicians was on original compositions and on experimenting with new playing techniques for cello, violin, and mandola. Their musical range now extends from massive rock riffs and virtuosic frenzied unison passages to intimate grooves and sensitive cantilenas. “We call our music progressive because it covers a wide range,” says Matthias Bartolomey. And the legendary Nikolaus Harnoncourt said about the duo: “super composed and fabulously played!” In their new program entitled “ten”, the two musicians celebrate their tenth anniversary as an ensemble and present current pieces, many of which were written during the pandemic lockdown.