Bandcamp Presents: Words and Music with Sofia Kourtesis and Paul Hanford ・ Pop-Kultur Festival 2026

August 24–30, 2026 | silent green Kulturquartier, Festsaal Kreuzberg, Kulturbrauerei, Pierre Boulez Saal, and more 

Live concerts, experimental music formats, talks, and more. You can look forward to international and local artists, world premieres, and music in all its forms—from large stages to intimate club shows.

Bandcamp Presents: “Words and Music” with Sofia Kourtesis and Paul Hanford Together with Bandcamp, the Pop-Kultur Festival invites you to an intimate conversation with journalist and podcaster Paul Hanford (Mixmag, DJ Mag) and DJ, producer, and musician Sofia Kourtesis. Together, they’ll delve into selected tracks from Kourtesis’s own discography—as well as some of the pieces that have had a decisive influence on her musical universe. Born in Lima and now living in Berlin, Sofia Kourtesis is one of the most exciting voices in contemporary electronic music: euphoric house, fragile intimacy, Latin American influences, and a deep sense of storytelling coalesce in her work into tracks that evoke both a night at the club and personal memories. Her highly acclaimed debut album *Madres*, released in 2023 on Ninja Tune, explored themes of care, migration, queerness, family, and resilience—and demonstrated just how far the emotional reach of dance music can extend today. Most recently, she released a celebrated “DJ-Kicks” mix featuring tracks by Aphex Twin, Daphni, Avalon Emerson—who is also performing at Pop-Kultur this year—and Sedef Adasi, as well as two new original productions: “A Brief Look In Your Eyes” and “Los Poemas No Siempre Riman” (with Novalima). In conversation with Berlin-based author and podcaster Paul Hanford —host of the acclaimed BBC podcast “Lost and Sound” and author of “Coming to Berlin,” a book on the city’s electronic music history—Sofia Kourtesis discusses the changes that have shaped her career, the intuitive aspect of her production process, and how personal experiences can be translated into sound. Together, they listen to and discuss selected tracks, tracing the threads of influences, memories, and obsessions—and in doing so, explore the distinctive soundscape that Sofia Kourtesis has built over the past few years.