Kurt Buttiġieġ is an experimental musician, sound artist and curator whose work explores memory, language and materiality.

His sounds have been described as “a well of time”, “gorgeous, otherworldly musique concrète” and “nervous, pulsing ambient”.

These sounds are strongly anchored in places. Island life is defined by proximity. People, objects and stories sit too close together to disappear, so they echo, overlap, and get rewritten through reuse and misunderstanding. The work reflects this, with repurposed media, intimate field recordings, electronics and amplified objects all coexisting precariously. Electromagnetic listening has become central, with unstable fields being turned into fragile melodies.

A native speaker of Maltese, he is particularly attentive to questions of language loss and the survival of minority languages.

He releases and performs under different contexts and names, including Seta Kien.

Other bits:
☛ Artistic Director of Sustain-Delay in Malta, presenting adventurous music to the (unexpected!) enthusiasm of audiences not used to these sounds.
☛ Runs the label Complex Holiday.
☛ Occasional contributor to The Wire magazine (including writing on the Belgian and Maltese scenes), and contributor to The New Noise (in Italian).
☛ Artistic Advisor at Każin ISSA, Ħamrun, Malta (from 2024).

Background:
MA Sound Art (University of Barcelona)
MA Interpreting & Linguistic Terminology (University of Malta)

FAQ

Are you really Maltese? Your name and surname sound German.
Yes. Malta is a satisfying multicultural and post-colonial mess, with weird names that shouldn’t be on a Mediterranean island. My parents just liked the name Kurt. My surname comes from Arabic (“Abu Dajaj”). It literally means “father of chickens”. I have not fathered any chickens.

What does Seta Kien mean?
Seta Kien, officially Seta’ Kien, means “what could have been” in Maltese (and Maghrebi Arabic).

I would like to play live in Malta. Can you help?
I would be happy to if I can. This page I wrote could be helpful.

Are you related to Pete Buttigieg, the politician?
No. It’s a common surname and there’s actually several people with my name and surname. But his dad and I are from the same place, and my dad was a postman, so who knows…