When Sofia Kourtesis was working on her buoyant 2021 single “La Perla,” her father was dying of leukemia. Two years later, the preciousness of life is still very much on the Lima-born, Berlin-based producer’s mind. On “Vajkoczy,” the latest single off her forthcoming album Madres, Kourtesis pays homage to the renowned neurosurgeon Peter Vajkoczy, the man responsible for prolonging her mother’s time on this Earth. On the track, Kourtesis’ signature house grooves are accented with chirping pocket calculators and fluttering effects that recall satellites in the vastness of space, or perhaps a warped heart-rate monitor. Meanwhile on the hook, plaintive vocals echo: “Oh what’s in life, gone away,” she coos—a lament of death’s eventual coming, but also a propulsive cry to go out and fucking live while you still can.
