FEATURE:
Spotlight
regarding the extraordinary Sofia Kourtesis and her music. I am going to focus more on her new E.P., Fresia Magdalena, as it is a phenomenal work – and one that, I think, warrants more investigation and critical reviews. Even though Kourtesis has been on the scene for a bit, I think her latest E.P. is a real revelation and deceleration of intent! She is definitely being championed as a huge future talent. This is what The Guardian wrote last year:
“Listen to the opening number of the Peruvian-born producer Sofia Kourtesis’s first, self-titled EP, and you imagine a train made of rackety sonic junk clattering down a track. Its destination? A good time, surely: while her brand of house may be arrestingly distinct, clicking and juddering with distorted vocals and fragments of field recordings, she always keeps her eyes firmly on the dancefloor rather than the navel.
Kourtesis, who is based in Berlin, started out in a hip-hop band at 18 (“We were really bad”) before migrating to the mixing deck after meeting her now ex-partner Derwin Schlecker, AKA Gold Panda, and later becoming a booker for clubs including Berlin’s Funkhaus. Released last year by Studio Barnhus, the eclectic Stockholm-based dance label, the EP won glowing reviews (Pitchfork called it “magical”)”.
I want to travel back and head to 2015. Even then, we were getting blooms and flames from the incredible talent. When she spoke with Earmilk, we learned more about her stunning E.P., This Is It:
“Sofia Kourtesis is fill of innovation and creativity with a taste for unique noises. Having risen from the dross that clutters Soundcloud, she has appeared on several serious musical radars.
The Berlin resident recently released her debut EP, This Is It, which is overtly catchy and melodic mood music. You can immediately hear the passion behind the music Sofia's making and this first EP is frighteningly good. It was obvious EARMILK needed to reach out and hear who she is and how she's capable of such impressive sounds.
EM: Definitely. What are you most excited about with your new EP, This Is It, being released?
Sofia: I'm excited about the reaction from people. It was a very emotional process for me because every song was a personal relief to make.
EM: Quite a few of the tracks are related to your family, correct?
Sofia: Yeah, more than anything it's about the death of my granny. I tried to write about all my emotions that came to me when she died. Fresia is the name of my mother too.
EM: How long did This Is It take to make in its entirety?
Sofia: Well it took a while because I wasn't always working on it. The last half went really quickly, but the beginning was slow. I would say roughly two years.
EM: Which track did you have the most fun to make?
Sofia: I think probably "Abue" because it was really funny to produce. I was jamming around with Gold Panda at the time and it felt really organic. We made it in only 30 minutes.
EM: How has growing up in a city like Berlin influenced your musical growth?
Sofia: Berlin is very inspiring and has really organic energy. Sometimes when I don't go out at night, I'll wake up really early, take a break, and go into a club at 7am. The new material I'm making is really Berlin influenced. I needed to put my past away and move on as an artist. Now that I'm here in Berlin I'm experiencing a new change”.
I cannot include all of Sofia Kourtesis’ best songs in this feature. I would advise people to listen back to her catalogue and discover an artist who, pretty much from the off, announced herself as a seriously innovative and phenomenal artist. I think that many eyes and ears will be on her having accomplished so much in her career so far. I would urge people to follow her on social media and, if possible, go and see her perform live in the future if she is near you!
I want to bring things relatively up-to-date. The Peruvian-born artist spoke with NME about Fresia Magdalena and how she has developed and strengthened her sound through the years:
“For Sofia Kourtesis, the sea is a formative place. The Peru-born, Berlin-based producer spent her teenage years surfing on her home city Lima’s gorgeous Pacific Ocean coastlines, conquering the waves and finding a place where her rebellious spirit could flourish without interference. But when her father was diagnosed with leukaemia a decade later, the pair became willing observers, not partakers; they would sit together on the beach, lost watching the tide drifting in and out, succumbing to its meditative ways. The serenity doesn’t necessarily compute with her “overworked” brain, but the hours whiled away together provided a form of mental and physical pain relief for her father during his battle.
That moment – among many – became the inspiration for her new EP, ‘Fresia Magdalena’, in particular the opening song, ‘La Perla’. As a steady beat locks onto ethereal backing vocals and a minimal melody, Sofia tells her father that she is “trying to change” and that the pair should be “trying to forget” about the illness and the world around them. For anyone who has experienced grief in the last year, it’s a soothing balm.
Showing vulnerability to her family makes for a radical move in Kourtesis’ career. She describes the previous two EPs – 2019’s self-titled effort and 2020’s ‘Sarita Colonia’ – as a playground for ideas, where club-orientated groovers jousted with samples from her favourite films. But they showed little of her emotions; the imagery of Sarita Colonia – the Peruvian patron saint of the poor – on the releases’ artwork providing the only real thread between releases.
On ‘Fresia Magdalena’, she is frank and open, namechecking family members (Fresia, her mother), sampling them (her father on ‘Nicolas’), and for the first time, singing. On ‘La Perla’, in particular, her vocals waft in and out of earshot, like a shell tumbling onto the sand and being pulled back into the water. It’s a wondrous step forward. “My last EPs were about happiness and losing it and three-day raves with my best friends, but this one had to be more about reflecting on my life – it was a big step to be without my samples or machines talking for me.”
And a live experience is where Sofia hopes to marry all of her talents; exhilarating house bangers set to stunning visuals shot on her travels. “I want a cinematic aspect. I want to transport the audience and send them messages via singing, visually or improvising and speaking directly. DJing is very superficial for me at the moment, so I want to be able to take the audience to my world through the things that I have created. I want to be more vulnerable, so this is why I wanted to open up and show them this live show.”
Though the inspiration ‘Fresia Magdalena’ was conceived in an insular moment with her late father, this EP is a welcome place to dip a toe into Sofia Kourtesis’ world. There are flashes of the many experiences she and her family have lived, fused together with a spirit that envisions a better world, without prejudice and liberation for all. The personal motto that she lives by should come as little surprise: “Life never has a happy end, but there is hope if we work as a community”.
As I said earlier, there have been positive reviews for Fresia Magdalena. Maybe it is the fact that it is an E.P. (they tend to get less attention than albums), but I feel more critical minds should get involved with Fresia Magdalena and lend their impressions. Returning to NME…this is what they remarked:
“Opening track ‘La Perla’ is a moving yet uplifting memory of her late father, which sees Kourtesis staring out to sea and singing on record for the first time. Shimmering synths shine over her heartfelt Spanish lyrics while a choir of voices, percussive instrumentation and a whistled outro channel a revelatory air of long-awaited peace and serenity.
The nostalgic glimmer of ‘Nicolas’ and the entrancing near-seven-minute throb of ‘Dakotas’ both utilise natural elements brilliantly, too. ‘Nicolas’’s drum patterns chime with water trickling down a window to form the backdrop to a recorded conversation, while the camera clicks and chugging synth whirrs of ‘Dakotas’ conjure up a long train journey home. The reassuring voice sample that runs through final track ‘Juntos’ – which translates to ‘together’ in English – acts as a guiding light through dark times, ending the EP on a note of optimism.
By threading a sense of personality and place into her contemplative yet gradually anthemic creations, Kourtesis paints a vivid picture on ‘Fresia Magdalena’ of the locations and moments that she is inviting the outside world to discover and understand through her music. Much like her recent reworkings of Ela Minus’ ‘megapunk’ and Georgia’s ‘24 Hours’, Kourtesis’ latest EP more than proves that club-ready music can be beautiful, thought-provoking and banging all at the same time”.
I think Sofia Kourtesis will get even stronger and striking as an artist. She is a remarkably original composer and someone who has a very long and bright future. Go and give her a follow and keep a look out for what comes next. With Fresia Magdalena, Kourtesis has created…
A stunner of an E.P.
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