Cem Güven (1997, Turkey) describes his music as “Earround Music“, more specifically, “harmonic germinations surrounding the ears” since his ambition is for the listeners to feel like their ears are filled with contrasting sounds which give the feelings of “complete” surrounding sonorities.
He aims to use a contrasting variety of pitch and dynamics, as well as to emphasize the tension between twelve-tone and microtonal pitch collections within continuously expansive harmonic progressions.
Güven works with abstract, imaginary atmospheres that give the feeling of eternity and inescapability, as the emphasized sonorities disappear and reappear with ambiguous pacing. The tension between twelve-tone and microtonal pitch collections reflects his contemporary perspective of Turkish music and its “makams”.
Güven’s music often features the contrast between intense and meditative atmospheres, and the pacing of his works aims to reach his utopia of “uninterrupted focus” while listening.
Güven has graduated from The Juilliard School in New York and from The Royal Academy of Music and is currently pursuing his doctoral degree at Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences with fellowship.
Cem Güven recently became a composer of Universal Edition of Wien, where his scores are being published and distributed, in addition, he became an artist of Talent Unlimited in London.
Güven is a multiple award-winning composer and has participated in festivals and worked with well-known ensembles such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, Attacca Quartet or Riot Ensemble, just to name a few (you can find the full list of his prizes and collaborations on his website).
