Bandcamp Presents: Words and Music with Sofia Kourtesis and Paul Hanford

Paul Hanford, Sofia Kourtesis

Together with Bandcamp, the Pop-Kultur Festival invites audiences to an intimate conversation between journalist and podcaster Paul Hanford (Mixmag, DJ Mag) and DJ, producer, and musician Sofia Kourtesis. Together, they dive into selected tracks from Kourtesis’ own discography, alongside some of the pieces that have profoundly shaped her musical universe.

Born in Lima and now based in Berlin, Sofia Kourtesis has emerged as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary electronic music. Euphoric house, fragile intimacy, Latin American influences, and a deep instinct for storytelling converge in tracks that feel equally rooted in the club and in personal memory. Her widely acclaimed debut album »Madres«, released in 2023 via Ninja Tune, moved between care, migration, queerness, family, and resilience, revealing just how expansive the emotional reach of dance music can be today. Most recently, she released a celebrated »DJ-Kicks« mix featuring tracks by Aphex Twin, Daphni, Avalon Emerson – who also appears at this year’s Pop-Kultur Festival – and Sedef Adasi, alongside two new original productions: »A Brief Look In Your Eyes« and »Los Poemas No Siempre Riman« with Novalima.

In conversation with Berlin-based author and podcaster Paul Hanford – host of the acclaimed BBC podcast »Lost and Sound« and author of »Coming to Berlin«, which explores the city’s electronic music history – Sofia Kourtesis reflects on the changes that have accompanied her career, the intuitive nature of her production process, and the ways personal experience can be translated into sound. Together, they listen to and discuss selected tracks, tracing lines of influence, memory, and obsession, gradually moving closer to the singular sonic world Sofia Kourtesis has built over recent years.