About
Sebastian Kurtén (he/him), born in 1993 in Helsinki, is a Finland-based sound designer, music producer, and dancer. In 2008 Kurtén started his creative path, drawn in by hip-hop culture, as he began breaking and producing music. Today, Kurtén works primarily as a sound designer in the field of dance, where he fuses his two greatest passions: sound and movement.
Kurtén's sound is a seamless blend of the synthetic and organic - processed field recordings, found objects, instruments, and plug-ins— all mashed up within Ableton Live. His curiosity for sound and eagerness to experiment have made him a versatile, genre-fluid professional. Kurtén is known for creating with whatever is at hand, a practice that has honed his ability to craft compelling audio with minimal resources.
Eat me
Eat me stems from reflections on the portrayal of female bodies in visual arts, the consumption of images in mainstream media and the sexualization of women. Starting from a fascination for the Italian expression mangiare con gli occhi (literally: "eating with the eyes", to desire, to crave), the project questions the way the body is observed, investigating the dynamics and politics of the gaze through the relationship between spectator and performer.
Winner of DNAppunti coreografici 2023.
PREMIERE
20.10.2024
ROLE
Sound Designer, Composer
CHOREOGRAPHY
Giorgia Lolli
PRODUCTION
Anghiari Dance Hub, Nexus Factory
PERFORMED IN
› Romaeuropa Festival
› Centro Nazionale di Produzione della Danza Virgilio Sieni
› Gender Bender International Festival
› Festival Internazionale La Sfera Danza
Don’t Call Me a Dancer
Isadora Duncan (San Francisco, 1877 – Nice, 1927) is remembered for her light dances, flowing tunics, and bare feet. Nearly a century after the iconic scarf that ended her life by getting caught in the wheels of a car, the timeless legacy of a woman who changed the history of dance forever is entrusted to four Gen Z dancers and a choreographer who, like Isadora, is a Gemini with Venus in Gemini.
PREMIERE
23.09.2024
ROLE
Sound Designer, Composer
CHOREOGRAPHY
Giorgia Lolli
PRODUCTION
Giorgia Lolli, MM Contemporary Dance Company
PERFORMED IN
› Fonderia, CCN Aterballetto
A Fistful of Funk
The work is inspired by the hypermasculinity and toxic machismo of western films and the genre's cavalcade of characters. A Fistful of Funk revolves around locking from which it begins to weave connections to the world of contemporary dance theatre. The group seeks to dismantle the masculinity familiar from westerns and explore what masculinity and masculine encounters can be instead.
PREMIERE
03.06.2024
ROLE
Sound Designer, Composer, Performer
CHOREOGRAPHY
Akim Bakhtaoui, Wilhelm Blomberg, Will Funk For Food
PRODUCTION
Will Funk For Food & Zodiak
PERFORMED IN
› Tanssin Talo
Something Like This
something like this is a performance that looks at the possibilities of the stage and hip-hop culture to serve as a platform for telling diverse stories, taking over space, empowerment and communality. Performers from diverse backgrounds dance, tell stories and have fun – together. There is room for many kinds of stories on this stage.
PREMIERE
30.08.2023
ROLE
Sound Designer, Composer
CHOREOGRAPHY
Sonya Lindfors & working group
PRODUCTION
Zodiak Center for New Dance
PERFORMED IN
› Atelier de Paris
› Tour in cultural houses around Helsinki capital area
› Zodiak Center for New Dance
Of Monsters and Monsters
Of monsters and monsters is a dance work that explores the manifestations of shame and how we can better get to know and befriend it by giving the emotion a physical or audiovisual form. Through playful and dystopian world-building in designer Anna Poleteli’s costumes and the movement language of club- and street dance styles, the performance animates shame as something ridiculous - yet recognizable.
PREMIERE
19.011.2022
ROLE
Sound Designer, Composer, Performer
CHOREOGRAPHY
Lauri Lohi
PRODUCTION
Lauri Lohi & Stora Teatern
PERFORMED IN
› Stora Teatern, Göteborg
› Vara konserthus
› Folkets hus Vänersborg
› Vitlycke Center
› Frilagret
Runsauden Pula
Runsauden Pula offers the viewer a multisensory experience, playfully inviting us to embrace abundance around us, within ourselves, and in others. In the world of the piece, events are observed through an intergalactic Abundance Service Station. Using a gas station as a witness for the work has been a tool for the artists to view life's abundance through magical realism. The performance draws from the movement languages of breaking, popping and whacking and brings them together with dance theatre and surreal sci-fi elements.
PREMIERE
19.011.2022
ROLE
Sound Designer, Composer
CHOREOGRAPHY
Lauri Lohi & Ira Wuolle
PRODUCTION
Lauri Lohi & Ira Wuolle
PERFORMED IN
› Stockholm Fringe
› KokoTeatteri
› Teatteri Näyttämö