Sofia Kourtesis's Phenomenal Debut Album 'Madres' Combines Opposite Cultures and Human Emotion for One of the Year's True House Highlights

There may be a chill in the air, but Sofia Kourtesis is here with a sweaty new dance classic.

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I have a simple request for record labels from now on: please release all of the year’s excellent house music during the summer.

I say this jokingly, but I’m back for a second week in a row, wishing that I could have enjoyed an exceptionally excellent house record when the weather was spicy a few short months ago. As the temperature drops into the twenties during an early cold spell, Madres, the debut album from Sofia Kourtesis, has me wishing I was poolside instead of wearing a hoodie while waiting for the heater to click on again.

Like last week’s review for Barry Can’t Swim When Will We Land?, Madres is a house record in the broadest sense that reaches for the dancefloor heavens while staying anchored to the earth thanks to Kourtesis’s knack for incorporating human emotion to accompany her beats. Also, like When Will We Land?, Madres is the first full-length statement for an artist who has quickly risen through the electronic ranks thanks to a few strong EPs and singles.

Born in Peru, Kourtesis relocated to Berlin after being ostracized and forced into conversion therapy because of her queerness, a difficult move that she has not spoken about until this album cycle. While thousands of miles apart physically and culturally, the combination of Kourtesis’s South American roots with one of Europe’s most progressive (and artist-friendly) cities plays out wonderfully through her music, as she incorporates Afro-Peruvian samples and textures with Euro-house beats.

There’s another crucial piece to this exemplary record, which is also the inspiration for the album’s name. As Kourtesis built her reputation by being a critic’s favorite while playing some of Europe’s biggest festivals, her mother was back in Peru with what seemed to be inoperable terminal cancer. Having also recently lost her father, Kourtesis wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. After reading about a world-renowned and in high-demand neurosurgeon named Peter Vajkoczy, Kourtesis posted a piece of one of her new songs to social media, saying she would dedicate the music to him if she could talk to him about her mother’s situation. Not only did they connect, but Vajkoczy could operate successfully, which is where the album’s third song name comes from.

This may also be why there is such a beautifully buoyant joy to Madres’s title track, to which Kourtesis says, "(‘Madres’) is about my mother, her mother, my sisters who are mothers, my brothers who are mothers, and all the LGBTQIA+ members who are mothers to their communities. Madres has no gender. Madres loves to protect the ones you love.” These cathartic moments are throughout the record, like on the accurately named “How Music Makes You Feel Better” or the slithering groove of “Funkhaus.”

As fantastic as most of Madres is, it’s the final three songs that leave a lasting impression. “Estación Esperanza” is wonderfully percussive and features the legendary Manu Chao, before the album highlight “Cecilia” will have you wondering if you ever need to hear Simon and Garfunkel’s song of the same name again¹, as ethereal vocals and grounded piano accents fill it with life. Finally, “El Carmen” ends things on a solid note, bringing Madres back to Peru.

With Barry Can’t Swim, I boldly predicted that it was my album of the year for electronic music, as we’re pretty late in the release calendar. While I’m not quite ready to hand that designation to Sophia Kourtesis, I can safely say that Madres is right up there. By making a name for herself one song at a time, the build-up to this debut album justifies the hype. It’s a gorgeous, fully envisioned effort that is a treat and pure escapism from the too-early brutal cold.

Madres is available on Ninja Tune.

Have a favorite house/electronic album this year? Let me know about it in the comments!

1. I love Simon and Garfunkel and especially Paul Simon’s solo catalog, but “Cecilia” is one I’ve heard plenty of.