Tim Mariën uproots and challenges the musical experiences to which we as listeners are accustomed. Above all, the use of unconventional tunings makes one feel at first like a stranger in the music of the Belgian composer, then nevertheless "at home". Mariën, who appreciates a certain unruliness in the sonic material, detunes and reconstructs instruments in order to elicit unique microtonal scales and timbres from them. Tim Mariën started composing on his own, after discovering avant-garde composers such as Pierre Henry, Luigi Nono and Karlheinz Stockhausen in his teens. During his studies in musicology at KU Leuven, he researched Harry Partch's 'extended just intonation'. Mariën writes on commission of several ensembles, for which he often manipulates or re-tunes instruments. In 2010 he received the Stipendiumprize for composition during the international summer courses for contemporary music in Darmstadt.