New York-based artist Jake Courtois was born somewhere far to the North, under the soft guidance of Aurora Borealis, and swiftly blanketed in snow. Many moons later, after a daring escape from his fundamentalist overseers, this young misplaced tropical fish swam instinctively South towards warmer rat-infested waters. Rats, being largely misunderstood, felt like family, and he has been paying too much rent ever since. After years of hearing people mispronounce his last name, he finally decided to provide a more phonetically user-friendly moniker : Koortwah. His is a musical and visual project, incorporating the fresh sound of electronic pop with the lyrical depth and narrative qualities of more thoughtful songwriting. Reminiscent of and inspired by the likes of Depeche Mode, Leonard Cohen, Roger Waters, Philip Glass, Robert Plant, New Order, Smashing Pumpkins and more, Koortwah manages to pay homage to the glory of the past while exploring the fervour of the future. By integrating the songs into a carefully curated collection of video projections, Koortwah creates an immersive multimedia environment that is at once urgent and poignant, bombastic and mysterious.
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