The compositional and aesthetic questions that Ataç Sezer has been exploring since then are, as it were, a logical consequence of the complexity and diversity of these experiences. On the one hand, Sezer engages in a systematic, discursive examination of the modal tone systems of the Arab world; on the other hand, he reflects on the possibilities of microtonal and electronic music from a European perspective. On the other hand, Sezer systematically explores the techniques and sounds of Ottoman-Turkish instruments such as the long-necked flute ney and the bowed box-neck lute kemençe, alongside his exploration of new notation systems and playing techniques for European instruments.
The Ottoman-Turkish and European cultural spheres, with their artistic and compositional practices, form the dual framework for Ataç Sezer's work. However, in terms of composition and performance practice, they constitute little more than a material basis, which Sezer masters with great knowledge and virtuosity and from which he advances to an individual musical style. The composition Peschrev-Präludium for ney, electric bass, and electronics from 2008 formulated this in a paradigmatic way for the first time. The traditional elements do not end up in a false synthesis or symbiosis in which one or the other appears as an exotic, picturesque addition, but rather enter into a mode of mutual reflection and interpenetration. Sezer thus formulates a critical and at the same time independent artistic-aesthetic position in the discourse on new music, which opposes the postcolonialist perspective on classical music from the Arab or Asian world that often prevails today.
Ataç Sezer's work is dominated by the primacy of the new, in the literal sense: unheard-of sound. Systematically and on the basis of comprehensive compositional expertise, Sezer develops his ideas in a series of works that explore this dimension of sound in a wide variety of instrumentations. The recordings on the CD “Garden in Eden” bear eloquent witness to this.