SOFIA KOURTESIS - Dj-Kicks

It feels odd to open this review of a Dj-mix by referencing a band that has nothing to do with Sofia Kourtesis' work, and yet the title of the album that, eight years ago, sent Idles' stock soaring perfectly sums up the experience contained in the twenty-one chapters that make up the Peruvian producer's contribution to !K7's historic Dj-Kicks series. “Joy As An Act Of Resistance” could indeed be the perfect summary of one of the most personal sets released in recent years. Put together in the wake of her mother's death and during the most intense phase of her grief, the set compiles a careful selection of all the moods and feelings that fueled her recovery, allowing her to rediscover the energy and strength needed to process the loss. Because memory, more often than not, manages to stay alive through rhythm.

Joy, then, and with it all the ups and downs, the turbulence and psychological corollaries that can come with it. So don't expect a mix tailored to fill dancefloors from minute zero: like the best sets in the series, and as Kourtesis herself is keen to point out, the whole collection unfolds like a story, a dialogue with one's own inner self even before with the beyond: it's only natural that house, the producer's language of choice, comes in gently, letting the emotion simmer on a low flame before the colours and fireworks make their entrance. From the electroacoustic torpor of Jon Hopkins and the pensive personality of Aphex Twin's "Flim", the mix finds its way with due gradualness, making room for the warm pulses of afrobeat ("Ne noya", in the mix crafted by Daphni), luxurious french-touch effervescence ("Make Me Feel Better"), and rain-soaked spells where nostalgia can pour in freely ("Rock Top" by former labelmate Axel Boman). Joy advances as revelation, in the most literal way possible (Joy Anonymous and their funkadelic syncopations), but above all in backlight, behind feverish metallic pulses (the technoid incandescence of "One More Fluorescent Rush") or acidic roars, where the face of her late mother can best stand out ("Her" by Logic1000).

Kourtesis lets her mixing skills do the talking, deliberately scattering any form of linearity so that the music conceals pre-set patterns: an acid-edged triptych like "A Brief Look In Your Eyes" – "Mermaids On Acid" – "Xtasis" never lingers on the same emotional variable, working instead through displacement, between introspective asides, brooding and nervousness, before paradise briefly opens its doors. Even so, the aromas and sensations that emerge are enough to line the rest of the journey. Joy consolidates itself here, still a little wavering at times, but nonetheless an integral part of the context: Latin moods and Peruvian horizons become the model for a poetry that clearly has no interest in finding rhyme, preferring instead to express itself with all the character at its disposal, unleashing all the complexities and contradictions of its being.

Free from strict logic, yet strengthened by a lightness that stems from deeper reasons, Sofia Kourtesis adds here a remarkable chapter to her discography, illuminating a mix of real depth with her own experiences and life story. To see the light again.

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15/05/2026