#bohdan

-all4oneone4all

Shadow and Bone? Pffft, more like a Spot The Musketeer game

Another Oc.

Monument of Bohdan Khmelnytsky in Kyiv, Ukraine

A release I spent a lot of time with towards the end of 2025 was this transcendental techno and mystical ambient EP from Bohdan released on Special Species Records. As described on the label’s Bandcamp, the four original tracks on Originem represent themes of personal rediscovery, and of holding tight to identity and image when the universe turns to chaos and turmoil (a relevant theme for many of us in these trying modern times). In order to explore these ideas, Bohdan uses electronic trance dance induction and atmospheres of mind-expanding chillout to provide a fantasy escape to faraway vistas of imaginative wonder…with everything oriented towards helping the listener brave hard times and re-center towards the true self. And in further support of these efforts, Bohdan is joined by one of my favorite artists in Vague Imaginaires, and also by Ukrainian artist Leftie—with each providing a transformative remix.

Bohdan - Originem (Special Species Records, 2025) “Seven Winds” rushes right into a world of deep techno psychedelia merging with accelerated prog house tempos and textures, while chimerical tonalities bring further evocations of new age, dub, and 90s trance mesmerism. It’s a pulsating and headtrip dreamland where alien acid effects, serene cosmic sequencing, and breaths of galactic gas are all chained to a hypnotic and minimal club rhythm ritual. “Night Call” follows on downtempo dream flows of booming bass and echoing percussion, as a ceremonial of deep and divine ambience gives birth to a skittering, almost anxious groove of IDM that is at once hyperactive and laid-back as it softly booms and baps into a celestial ocean of new age shimmer and futuristic chiming. Light-speed arpeggiations play against emotional chord progressions, snippets of mallet magic, and sub-vocal blooms of soft bass smolder…and everything just drips with a nostalgic tonality and a sense of wistful warmth.

“Sunrise on the Seym” ends side A, and is truly special. Berlin school patterns and smears of reverberation support streaks of skybound synthesis that swim towards a wavering sun through layers of wondrous marine enchantment. And sparkling and glimmering atmospherics immerse the soul as a paradise of pads softly sing together, creating a mysterious and magical landscape of ambi-balearic brilliance. “Celestial Wetland” opens the B-side with more of the sheening dub techno meets rolling and ricocheting prog trance propulsion, as delay trails bounce myriad sounds off of unseen reflective surfaces. The beat induces a mechanized club drug bounce as morphing and mutating melodic snippets play pyscho-sonic tricks on the mind. And balmy and blissed out key chords decay harmoniously across a bright blue sky while layered sequencer webs work in rhythmic counterpoint.

The rest of the B-side is occupied with the remixes, and in Vague Imaginaires’ take on “Seven Winds,” the beat is slowed way down and blasted way out into stoner zoner bliss…not unlike a Full Circle treatment with how bonged out everything is…the vibe given over to drug chug downer disco mesmerism with cyborg techno basslines carrying the original song’s bright pops of heavenly melody. The familiar circling sequences take on an almost tropical island flavor as they swirl drunkenly overhead, with everything seeming to buzz and breath through airs of of island idiophonics and other fourth world embellishments that now emerge more prominently within the flow. And as the track progresses, it focuses heavier and heavier on the bottom heavy groove of ambient dub and baggy balearic…heads down, hand up, body lost to the motion. Leftie reworks standout track “Sunrise on the Seym,” which now begins with a slowly churning vortex of cloudform synthesis, as the original track’s starry eyed melodics are sanded down to a shadowy yet pearlescent fog. Physical pulses and humid hisses flow across the stereo field, dream dances of new age synthesis drift in from landscapes of rainbow fantasy, and ascending runs of mystical mallet melody are heard far in the distance, as vapors of crystalline mist shining in all possible colors enrobe spiritual ocean melodies that decay towards eternity.

Ramses knew that his fiancée Marissa was a Veteran. It obviously wasn't a problem for him before, until he wanted to take her down a notch. "(43:43) In a relationship with these women he always feels insecure. And honestly I think with Marissa it was the moment that she told him she was into army guys before he immediately felt insecure because of that. And that's why the first time he negged her it was about being in the Army and about how he has a moral issue with that. He needed to neg that part of her somehow and then he just kept going. Every part of her that made him feel insecure he would eventually end up attacking and In this moment he was very much projecting."

-Lisa /YVedit

I realized something: Rameses best friend in the pods , Bohdan was in the military as well. But Ramses never brought up HIS military service as a negative. He never "stood up for his beliefs" to Bohdan.

"Hmm ... I don't know where but I'd love for us to find a place to settle down. We survived, we got some good money out of it ... we should get ourselves a home. Then our life together can really begin ... finally." Kjell hummed softly, enjoying the silence except for the waves and the ocassional seagull.