Courtesy — ‘Night Journeys’

“...very much like Lee Krasner's painting series to survive insomnia and anxiety after her husband Jackson Pollock died.”

Kulør011 — digital/vinyl 12″
Kulør — March 25, 2022

Shows premiering ‘Night Journeys’: 



May 4, Berghain, Berlin
May 11, Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam
May 19, Hotel Cecil, Copenhagen
Jun 7, Village Underground, London
Jun 11, Primavera Sound, Barcelona

'Night Journeys' EP is very much like Lee Krasner's painting series to survive insomnia and anxiety after her husband Jackson Pollock died. Thanks to her dreamy synthesizers, Courtesy didn't just survive, but found luster instead, lulling herself back to sleep -- vocals and guitar complete the job.

Lulls for big-rooms: Courtesy first live show X Copenhagen's artist Esben Weile Kjær -- also known for bringing the club to the art museum and author of 'Night Journeys' artwork too -- will showcase at Berghain, London's Amsterdam's Village Underground, Amsterdam's Tolhuistuin, Copenhagen's Hotel Cecil, until Primavera Sound, including some classic trance covers too. (Copenhagen, watch out: a special show around release too will happen in an art space with dancers TBA.) "Nachtmusik designed for late nights of quiet desperation": Courtesy's next step has come.

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There’s a luster to insomnia: its solitary rawness at an illicit hour of the night. In the spring of 2020, during the first lockdown in Berlin, Courtesy would get woken up at four in the morning by fits of chronic anxiety, so she would play chords on her synthesizer to clear her mind. To lull herself back to sleep, she would compose melodies as a way of deepening her studies in music theory. Only six months in did she realize this could and would make up Night Journeys, named after a series of paintings by Lee Krasner made after her husband Jackson Pollock died. “She couldn’t sleep and painted these abstract paintings in the middle of the night,” Courtesy says.

Night Journeys is the artist, DJ and composer Courtesy’s debut release. The EP of ambient trance will be released 25 March on Kulør, a record label and multidisciplinary artistic platform which she founded in 2018, that produces records, books and programming across the music and contemporary art worlds.

In the EP traces of ‘90s tracks, like the airy vocals in “Stay,” by Sash!, or the arpeggios of “Hearts” by L.S.G. Throughout Night Journeys, soaring pads are layered over modular arpeggios played by Otto Vik Mathisen. Vocals by Sophie Joe float over “Night Journeys II” like billowing fabric. Crisp and distant guitar, played by Luka Aron, appears on “Night Journeys III” like the oncoming of a hallucination.

As intimate as it is expansive, the music is designed for big-room clubs, which is where Courtesy will perform her debut live tour, starting at the main room in Berghain May 5th. She will collaborate with Copenhagen-based artist Esben Weile Kjær, who designed the sets for her concerts, as well as the vinyl cover. Ultimately, Night Journeys represents the next progression of the Courtesy project: a nachtmusik designed for late nights of quiet desperation.





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