Sofia Kourtesis

Greek father, Peruvian mother, a youth spent in Lima before flying off to Berlin: Sofia Kourtesis's life trajectory has already connected distant points in an incredible journey. Her debut album, Madres, arrives when she is 38 years old. It’s a maximalist album (featuring Manu Chao) filled with raw emotion, as evident in the recordings of LGBTQIA+ protest movements in Peru. The human stories within it are deeply moving, starting with the pain of her mother's illness, suffering from an inoperable tumor, and the surgeon who manages to save her, to whom one of the tracks on the album is dedicated.

Sofia Kourtesis’s music is the best way to process trauma on the dance floor, a process of spiritual awakening in the face of the greatest sufferings we might encounter on our path, fueled by clubbing atmospheres and South American echoes. This rebirth also makes its way to Poplar on Friday, September 13.