Sofia Kourtesis’ dance music brims over with wistful, curative potency. The Peru-born, Berlin-based producer and singer dapples her songs with joyful synth melodies and taut rhythms, often merging electronic music’s most effusive elements to poignant, heart-rending effect. Kourtesis’ outstanding 2023 debut, Madres, showcased her finesse behind the boards while infusing her soundscapes with yearning and intention, featuring both protest anthems and pensive songs about caring for her cancer-stricken mother. On new EP Volver, inspired in name by Spanish icon Pedro Almodóvar’s 2006 film, Kourtesis unveils a distinct, utopian vision of dance music dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community, specifically trans women, who have influenced her artistry and activism throughout the years. It’s a delightfully slippery, kaleidoscopic set that moves briskly between misty and propulsive floor-fillers, each song marked by poised rhythmic tension and a sense of play.
Kourtesis found time to write Volver while on tour behind Madres, eventually recording between her homes in Germany and Peru. You can hear traces of her electrifying live sets in the EP’s standout dance tracks, designed to jumpstart throngs of blissed-out clubgoers. On the ecstatic “Unidos,” she and Daphni (aka Caribou’s Dan Snaith) lock into a tightly wound, acid-tinged groove that cants between hiccuping vocal samples, submerged basslines, and bleeping house melodies. The song’s frolicking bounce brings out Kourtesis’ mischievous streak, especially once she stitches in a sample from the radio DJ in the New York street gang movie The Warriors, recalling a ballroom emcee proselytizing over a sweaty club night just before the downbeat kicks back in. She similarly holds court on the instrumental highlight “Nitzan and Aminaa,” a rippling deep house track spritzed with bright keys and a sinuous, syncopated beat. Seemingly custom-fitted for sunrise raves, the song moves between its disparate elements like clockwork, even when it comes perilously, thrillingly close to unraveling.
On “Canela Pura,” Kourtesis reveals a newly intimate side to her lyrics. Against colorful, rounded synth pads, she sings of love and freedom in a homespun, sensual scene of domestic pleasure. The Balearic-inspired opener “Corazón,” meanwhile, offers a strong showcase for Kourtesis’ soaring voice, richer and more confident since her breakthrough Fresia Magdalena EP. Daubed with meditative synth melodies and fuzzy field recordings, the song ratchets up to an uplifting chorus: “Y nadie nos va a separar/Separar/Separar” (“And no one is going to separate us/Separate us”), she insists in a bright, clear tone, transforming her words from a melancholy promise to a life-affirming rallying call for queer communities under threat.
Volver flourishes in those alchemical, heart-thumping moments. “Ballumbrosio,” named after and featuring Peruvian musical legend Miguel Ballumbrosio, is one of the EP’s bolder left turns; incorporating walloping cajón, chanted vocals, and zapateo rhythms, Kourtesis rewires Afro-Peruvian traditions into her own kinetic fusion. The song is one of several in Kourtesis’ catalog that shines a light on her home country’s cultural heritage and impact while simultaneously asserting her personal touch. Like Madres before it, the best of Volver’s shapeshifting songs tap into Kourtesis’ skill at gracefully weaving together musical, political, and personal influences, capable of evoking a spectrum of emotion when you least expect it.
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