Berlin-based Peruvian house producer Sofia Kourtesis has a unique relationship with sound and rhythm. Most producers view sounds and samples like clay. Inert objects that you scoop, scrape, mold and manipulate until they take the shape that you desire. Sofia's techniques are distinguishable from those of her peers in that she appears to have a real bond with the sounds that she expresses her self through, training beats and grooves to seek a certain end and then allowing them to lead her there. The specificity of this collaboration with sound is owed in part to the aspects of her identity with which she concerts to consummate each track. Sofia's latest EP Fresia Magdalena is named for both her mother (Frasia) as well as the district in Peru where she is from (Magdalena), and, like her previous EP, also features the visage of Sarita Colonia, her country's, uncanonized, patron saint of the poor. With how much of herself she puts into her music, it's no wonder that it manages to feel like it doesn't just reflect the contents of a life, but that it has one of its own. Most of the samples on the album were solicited by Sofia in Lima, and the textures and beats they serve to inform supply a breath and a quiet bellow to Fresia Magdalena that does more than simply move your feet; it moves your soul as well.
