The Möllan Sessions Koss/Henriksson/Mullaert

Everbody knows: good friends of real good friends have to be good people. Another proof of this unwriten sagacity is the story of Sebastian Mullaert and Marcus Henriksson aka Minilogue and Kuniyuki Takahashi aka Koss. Once Kuniyuki's friend Toshiya Kawasaki founded in Tokyo his label Mule Musiq only because he wanted to release Kuniyuki's music in order to spread the message that he is one of the most heartfelt contemporary electronic soul musicians of Japan. That was down in 2005 and since then Mule Musiq emerged, gave birth to many different partner labels, and built up a multicoloured artist family that also consists of the Swedish duo Minilogue. Especialy Minilogue member Sebastian Mullaert feels home in this warm-hearted clan and released all his solo works so far in the far east. Sure that the two Swedish boys once traveled to Tokyo to meet label head honcho Toshiya and perform and share their creative output with him and Japan. Here they met a lot of friends of Toshiya and among them was also Kuniyuki whom the Minilogue's love for his music since the turn of the millennium. Once during their trip they played with him as well at a party that was'nt just a regulary night. Instead it was a night where the three felt how deeply connected they are in the way how they do, love, and play music. Some month later in November 2010 Kuniyuki traveled to Europe for a small tour and the Minilogue guys decided to invite their new buddy to their cosy hometown Malmø to share some more music and creative output with the producer and DJ from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. Again it was'nt just an ordinary tourist trip to Skandinavia. This time they spent five long days and nights together and thighten their friendship in a studio where they jammed without any plan in mind. „All of us love to be spontaneous and do things in the moment so we just hooked up our instruments and started jamming. We threw a dice to see in which tempo the track should be in so everything was made out of the present moment. No thoughts about how and when, no plans. We just let the music flow through us. When we let ourselves go into the present moment there was just so much joy and happiness. No thoughts if things where good or bad - it was just music. We even didn't talk so much during the sessions. We let the music talk instead.“ explains Marcus Henriksson about their magic studio times. The result of this sorcerous moments now sees the light of the day with a mostly slow heartfelt album called „ The Möllan sessions“ - a record that is made for people who like to fill the room between the notes with their own imagination. Because between the sounds of a Rhodes, a Roland TR-808, a Roland SH-101, a Moog Voyager, a Nord lead keyboard, drums, congas, laptops, and lot's of other music sources Minilogue and Koss left enough space for the listeners individual emotions. Their epic arrangements are pratically meditative and everything is enriched with fine textured stillness, introspection, and calm repose. In-between every now and then a sweet melody pops up and sometimes a cautius bassline emerges in a pool of free spirited ideas that never want to chum up. That is why their album is one to travel, one into which you get drawn more the more you listen. A symphony of machines and instruments that all just been used to play the beat of the soul of the one who make the music. A blend of contrasting textures - organic and synthetic, icy and warm - that are at large hard pigeonhole in terms of a unique style. „The spirit was love without boundaries. No goals, just pure fun! I know that people want to know what style or what kind of music our album is but I try living my life without putting things into folders and comparing it with other projects or music styles. But I can describe the feelings we had when we where doing the project: compassion, love, joy, patience... lot's of possitive vibes without too many thoughts“ Marcus Henriksson reveals. A declaration to which is nothing more to add. Just one little advice: take your time when you dive into their arrangements because with patience you really will get lost.....!!!