Sofia Kourtesis, courtesy the artist.
If the holidays’ ups and downs shake you up, music can chill you out and bring you back down to Earth. (And even if the holidays are going well, you may find you still need some palette cleansers to try to rinse out the endlessly-looping holiday tunes that have assaulted us in past weeks.) So, we continue our Music into 2014 series with a really special mix from Sofia Kourtesis.
Sofia Kourtesis, DJing as Miss Sofie, is one of the music world’s many unsung multi-talented professionals, having made impressive strides as a booking agent, an independent producer and singer, and DJ and selector. Her Malecón Mix’s title evokes a seaside esplanade, like the one in Old Havana. And there’s something about her selections that feels centering, just like walking in the sun with cool seaside breezes and deep blue vistas. (Okay, it’s not Cuban, per se – think the feeling of doing that.)
With sounds from Hannes Rasmus to Cosmin TRG, Sofia hand-picks some of the finest production work of the last couple of years – sharply-focused, beautifully-made gems, all.
Listen:
Sofia sends CDM her track IDs:
“Point in Time” – Lake People, Point
“Running Out of Time” – Cliff Lothar, White Savage
“The Stranger” – Motor City Drum Ensemble, Send a Prayer EP
“Mono 66” – CTEPEO ’57, Missouri Breaks
“Die Idee ist gut, doch die Welt ist schon zu weit” – Hannes Rasmus, analog ist besser EP
“Everyday (Bonus Track)” – Simian Mobile Disco, Unpatterns
“3 AM Piano Thing” – Francis Inferno Orchestra, VR012
“Modern Driveway” – Luke Abbott, Modern Driveway EP
“Gotham (Original Mix)” – Ten Walls, Gotham EP
“She Can’t Go” – Julius Steinhoff, You Collect Secrets
“Maria (Unmixed)” – Closer Musik, Gold Panda / DJ-Kicks compilation
“Aurora” – Cosmin TRG, Panoramic
“Mozaik (Original Mix)” – Zomby, Zomby Dedication
“upekah” – son.sine, upekah
Catch up with Sofia on SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/sofia-kourtesis
and Facebook, where she is teasing work on a new EP:
Sofia Kourtesis * MissSofie*
It’s also appropriate to give Sofia some air time today, as I caught up with her tag-team DJing in Berlin with Missy Livingston, who today also shares a mix exclusively with CDM.
Sooth the Rudolph-the-Red-Nosed-Reindeer-savaged ears. I can’t think of a better way to close out 2013.