BOg, an artist originally hailing from Romania but now making Paris his creative base, has etched his name into the tapestry of electronic music history. A multi-talented artist, label owner, and DJ extraordinaire, BOg's journey through the world of music is a testament to his unwavering dedication, creativity, and deep passion for electronic sounds. This is the story of a musical visionary whose life and career have been a remarkable odyssey.

Born and raised in Romania, BOg's love for music blossomed from an early age. Drawn to the hypnotic rhythms and enchanting melodies of electronic music, he knew he had found his calling. With Paris as his backdrop, BOg embarked on a journey that would take him to the very zenith of the global electronic music scene.

In 2017, BOg took a bold step by launching his own record label, Atlant. This venture became a creative sanctuary for him, allowing him to curate and release music that resonated deeply with his artistic sensibilities. Atlant soon gained recognition as a platform for innovative and boundary-pushing electronic music.

BOg's music has taken him to the far reaches of the globe, touring territories that span Europe, Australia, North and South America. Along the way, he has cultivated a dedicated and loyal fanbase who eagerly await his performances and releases, cementing his status as a beloved figure in the electronic music community.

In addition to Atlant, BOg has graced well-respected labels such as Watergate, Diynamic, Innervisions, and Bedrock with his distinctive productions. His ability to craft emotive and immersive music has earned him the respect and admiration of fellow artists and industry luminaries.

A momentous milestone in BOg's career came in 2019 when he played a truly special Cercle live broadcasted set from the Romanian Embassy in Paris. This unforgettable performance showcased his artistry and further solidified his status as a global electronic music ambassador.

BOg's DJ sets are nothing short of transformative experiences. His ability to take audiences on a profound musical journey, weaving together intricate sonic landscapes, is a testament to his skill as a storyteller through sound.

Derek Beres is a multi-faceted author, speaker, and podcaster based in Portland, Oregon. He has served in senior editorial positions at a number of tech companies and has years of experience in health, science, and music writing. He regularly speaks on science and media literacy. Derek is the co-host of the Conspirituality podcast.

Alongside David ‘Duke Mushroom’ Schommer, Derek is one-half of EarthRise SoundSystem, which has released three albums and four EPs. Derek has produced records for Six Degrees Records and Vieux Farka Toure. He toured internationally with GlobeSonic and was a regular guest at the legendary Turntables on the Hudson parties and resident DJ of Kollektiv with Karsh Kale. He has performed alongside Jamiroquai, Ojos De Brujo, Sidestepper, Brazilian Girls, Yerba Buena, Antibalas, Cheb i Sabbah, and more. He served as music supervisor for the breakthrough documentary, DMT: The Spirit Molecule, and is the co-host of the podcast, Conspirituality. He (somewhat) regularly posts mixes on his Soundcloud page and on Spotify.

Independent Record Label based in London. Est 2017

For Rune Reilly Kölsch, Kompakt has become a great label to call home. In 2013 the German imprint celebrated 20 years of record releases at the cutting edge of electronic music, championed in June by one of the most genre re-defining albums and personal music projects for an era: Kölsch’s landmark long player, ‘1977’.

A melodic autobiography on black wax, the Kölsch project has seen 36/37-year-old Rune take stock of a diverse and successful production career and draw upon his own personal beginnings: a nostalgia for childhood, family, friends and the confusion of applying his split-cultural heritage to what it means to think of ‘home’. As Rune freely admits, “being half Irish, half German and living in Denmark – it was all one big messy period of my life.” 

Born to hippie parents in the freetown of Christiania (a commune-like autonomous borough of the Danish capital Copenhagen) his childhood was spent surrounded by creativity. His mother was an artist whose family had roots in German politics and his father a singer songwriter who travelled through Asia playing music in the early 70's. Kölsch, however, did miss out on building friendships and found solace in making up “this imaginary world that I would spend days in,” before the family moved to Germany – a period of memories, relations and characters from which ‘1977’ derives its titles.

For Rune, the tracks he began building from 2010 took in this personal reflection, his being “completely locked in to reminiscing about what shaped me as a kid and into the individual that I am now” – contemplating his unique past to form the brickwork of ‘1977’, one of the most future-facing techno albums of recent years.

Influenced by hip hop, pop and the incredible legacy of Jeff Mills and Derrick May, Rune started producing in 1995, embarking on a string of success stories. In 2003 he released the multi-million selling, saxophone-infused ‘Calabria’, that saw collaboration requests pouring in from artists as diverse as Nicki Minaj, Shakira and Flo Rida. He then set up Tattoorecs – releasing pioneering underground tracks with no titles, just tattoos for artwork, that garnered critical acclaim and support from minimal and techno trailblazers such as Sven Väth, Richie Hawtin, Magda, Tiefschwarz and Ricardo Villalobos.

This appreciation of the complete musical spectrum has gifted Rune with a devotion to groove and melodics and with it the dexterity to input real creative change to the genres he reveres, not least his beloved techno. “2010 was the year of the ketamine house wave, where the music was 118 bpm and everything was extremely boring”, reflects Rune. “I wanted some melodic techno, some energy back in this scene. People needed the energy to express themselves and go crazy for a bit.”

This notion faced opposition, even from within Rune’s close circles. But it was Kompakt founder Michael Mayer who had the insight to see what Kölsch was trying to achieve. Rune’s conviction that vibrations and melodics are the key to human response had tipped the balance, underlined by his experience as a hip hop DJ where he “needed something to catch me and drag me in. And that’s what techno should do!” Here too he drew on his love of Jeff Mills and Derrick May, recalling how “they used to make mistakes all the time. It would be a big mash of all kinds of stuff, but at least something was happening. That’s what I was missing and that’s what I’m trying to change with the Kölsch project.”

The result is ‘1977’, a personal collection of dancefloor destroyers that are continuing to send clubs and festivals across the globe into melodic supernova. Take this video of Kölsch’s set at Belgium’s I Love Techno festival, one of Rune’s 2013 highlights, where “people were doing sit downs, singing along to all the tracks”. Watch it. It puts the hairs up on the back of your neck. “The response was overwhelming,” said Rune in a recent interview with Mixmag (who named Kölsch as one of their ‘Stars Of 2013’), as “when you think about it, it was just a bunch of childhood memories with a kickdrum underneath.” 

Elsewhere he’s ripped up the airways with an acclaimed Essential Mix for Pete Tong on BBC Radio 1, delivered his incendiary soundscape to Singapore’s world-renowned ZoukOut Festival, boomed his live show through the heaving basement of London’s XOYO and played the hallowed Space Terrace – in his words “a boyhood dream since I started going to Ibiza in 1999. That was what I wanted from life!” So opening Amnesia in 2014 with Joris Voorn will be a bonus then...

While these are reasons enough to keep the beaming smile beneath Kölsch’s trademark black fedora, his humility remains just as striking. While tracks like ‘Goldfisch’ have taken pivotal positions in the set lists of world class DJs from across the dance music spectrum – traversing the underground with Seth Troxler, while simultaneously providing credible new euphoric highs for the likes of Axwell – Rune remains joyously down to earth. All despite producing, with ‘1977’, an album that has crossed as many cultural and musical boundaries as his own childhood past.

From the face-twisting melodic drive of ‘Opa’ and ‘Bappedekkel’, to the chord-surfing piano groove of ‘Der Alte’ and the euphoric crescendos of ‘Lorely’, ‘Oma’ and ‘All That Matters’ (all hits in different countries), the fact remains that whether in your living room, on the dancefloors of the world’s greatest parties, or simply in your headphones on your way home, Kölsch’s ‘1977’ has re-defined techno and become an achievement that speaks for itself. 

Words: Phil Dudman – Clubs & Live Music Editor, Mixmag


Ludovico Einaudi is known the world over through films and TV. His music has featured in titles including Black Swan, Doctor Zhivago, This is England and many more. In 2011 his track I Giorni was played on Radio 1, and his haunting melodies are timeless in their beauty.

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