By MARCUS HENRIKSSON – Marcus Henriksson a.k.a. Nobody Home of Minilogue and Son Kite just made a ‘journey’, more than 2 hours of monumental, deep mind and soul-traveling. And while you’re on this audio-journey, you can also embark on another one, reading his subjective, thought-provoking biography. Enjoy the ride in spirit and mind.

Marcus is not sticking to styles or trends. He wishes to express authentic electronic dance music connected to nature, without borders or limitations. Dancing, connecting and journeying with loving intention to inspire and ignite the spirit. Musical vibrations painting landscapes, dreams and images for the human being to travel and move within.

Marcus fell in love with the dance and trance when he went to his first rave in the summer of 1993. It was a profound experience that made him realize what his calling was.

As a child he grew up with a diverse musical input and inspiration. Listening to all kinds of music ranging from Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Abba, Front 242, Classical, Skinny Puppy to name a few.

His older brother had an Amiga 500 computer with a sequencer program paired with a Korg synthesizer. This was Marcus first contact with the creation of music with a sequencer program. His first inspiration to create a DJ mixtape came from a mega mix record called Max Mix 5, made by two Italians. They mixed all kinds of music together and also used effects on the mix. By the use of the tracking program, his brother’s synthesizer and his own records he created his first mixtape. Marcus had been on Mother Earth for 10 years when this took place.

So when he was dancing at that rave back in the summer of 1993 he knew what he wanted to do in life. To create dance music and rave gatherings. Make it possible for others to be able to dance to hypnotic music that had the possibility to put you in a state of trance. This was his faith. The music.

The following 4 years Marcus went to countless raves in Sweden and Denmark. He was there from the beginning until the end. He danced for 12 hours nonstop without using any substances or alcohol. The music was the carrier and the trance was the transformation. It did not have anything to do with styles or genres. For Marcus it was all about the dance and the trance experience. Connecting to oneself with the help of music and dancing.

At 18, Marcus was shy and introverted. And for him the dance was liberating him from his fears and shyness and he felt more closer to himself at the rave gatherings than in any other place in modern society. The trance helped him to connect into deeper aspects of reality. Higher states of consciousness and connecting with the collective psyche of the human. The feminine world soul. Psychedelic is a word pointing to Psyche. To have a psychedelic experience. One specific type of music in the electronic dance music scene is called psychedelic trance.

Marcus and a group of friends were creating their own raves and mixtapes during this period. They called themselves Toxomniac. Marcus was using an alias when dj’ing; Dj Metro.

In Marcus’ early DJ years, he was playing music like Jammin’ Unit, Hardfloor, Air Liquide, Purple Plejade, Basic channel, Massimo Vivona, Der Dritte Raum and record labels such as Harthouse, Headzone, Frankfurt beats, Djax upbeats, Eye Q to name a few. He had access to satellite TV which was another thing that interested him. Using the satellite dish to discover new TV channels and new satellites to connect to. As a young boy this became a source of many meetings with different cultures and languages. There was a German TV channel called Viva. They had a weekly show called Hausfrau where they reviewed records and were talking about the rave culture.

Marcus believes in ancient traditional rites and that we humans have used the dance ritual since the beginning of time to connect to nature. Marcus explains his view of the rave and dance culture:

What we call rave and dance music culture is just another label for the dance ritual that we humans have been experiencing since the dawn of time. Dancing to hypnotic drumming for a long time and sometimes using psychoactive substances to enter into a state of trance is built into our DNA.

In 1997 Marcus met Sebastian Mullaert and Christian Steiner. They had just started to create chill out music together and Christian had the studio equipment. They became friends and Marcus asked if they would like to make a dance track together. This was the beginning of the trio Trimatic.

Two years later, 1999 Marcus and Sebastian released their first album under the name Son Kite. It was also here they started touring the world.

By this time the previously underground rave culture had changed and club culture had started. The dance music was then divided into many different styles of music. Techno, trance, house, drum & bass, psychedelic trance and so on. The division of the genres was not something Marcus believed in and he was still in it for the dance and trance experience. But the modern music scene needed to place Son Kite into a genre and for this reason Son Kite started playing in the psychedelic trance music scene. They released over 20 vinyl singles on various labels and 4 albums with the Son Kite project.

During the years 2000-2007 Marcus was living in the city of Malmö in Sweden. Marcus and Sebastian were working closely together in their joined basement studio, High-Hat Studio. At the same time they were running their own record labels Baluns and Digital Structures together with their close friend Peter Svegrup. He was also there during the years as support and helping in many ways. He was their manager and friend. At that period there were two persons who had an impact on Marcus’ creative expression.

In 2001, Marcus met with Karl-Axel Bissler and they became close friends. This meeting shaped Marcus musical expression in many ways and he is forever grateful and thankful to his dear friend for those years.

At the same time Marcus also met with Fredrik “NOS” Holm. A multi-talented local artist and a fellow raver from the good old days. He was a big inspiration to Marcus and had a deep knowledge about analogue synthesizers. Both NOS and Karl were frequent visitors in the studio during recording sessions.

In 2000 Marcus and Sebastian started another alias; Minilogue. With this project they wanted to make music that was more aimed for the club and house scene. They have released over 40 vinyl singles on labels such as Cocoon, Traum, Baroque, Mule, Wagon Repair.

In 2008 they released their debut double album called “Animals” on Cocoon recordings. So for Marcus it felt like coming back to the roots when his music was released on Sven Väth’s record label. Sven Väth was the also in the rave scene when it started back in the 90’s and he was also one of the founders of the Harthouse Record label that Marcus was playing music from when he was starting his DJ career.

Minilogue became a very popular and famous name in the club scene around the world. Playing live shows on the same line up as Sven Väth, Ricardo Villalobos, Richie Hawtin, Josh Wink and many more from the world famous club music elite. Minilogue was touring heavily during this period.

In 2007 Marcus suffered from various physical illnesses. He experienced pain in his joints, stomach and heart. He went to western doctors for help and examinations. But they could not really find out what was wrong and started giving him western medicines. The western medicines reduced the pain but as soon as he stopped using them the pain came back. The doctors could still not see what was causing the illnesses. Marcus became troubled by this and he felt that no one could help him solve his problems. Marcus close friend Karl recommended a book about Ayurveda, meditation and yoga. This book inspired him to try this method since nothing else was working. So he started practicing meditation and yoga daily. And to his surprise it helped him and the problems were lessening. After 2 weeks of daily practice all of his ailments were gone! Through these tools Marcus healed himself from the problems that western doctors could not help him with. This was proof enough for Marcus to re-evaluate the whole western medicine approach.

The meditation fascinated him. It was opening him up to higher states of consciousness and connecting with the collective psyche. Something he could recognize from all the years of trance dancing. His curiosity and passion for the big questions in life were making him dive deep into advanced meditation and yoga techniques to learn more. This and the music became Marcus biggest passions for the coming years.

From the explorations with meditation and yoga Marcus felt a need to change his life. A life with less materialistic possessions and closer to nature.

In 2007 Marcus moved out from the city and into a house in the woods. Remotely situated from villages and neighbours, here he built his studio. He explored the solitary life and was doing his own meditation retreats that could last for days. He was also going to Vipasana meditation retreats. Marcus worked as a meditation and yoga teacher during this period. The insights and findings out of these inner explorations he channelled into the musical output of the Minilogue and Son Kite projects.

Marcus findings during that period:

The connection between rave, meditation, trance states to ancient rituals and into shamanism and mysticism interested me very much. I was experiencing the dance ritual on the weekeds when I was touring. I was conducting the music and journey for the dancing people on countless festivals and raves around mother earth. It was more than entertainment to me. It was something important and serious for me and it felt like I was taking part in an ancient traditional rite. A dance ritual where one danced by oneself for many hours to get into trance. Inner journeys while dancing.By the use of ancient spiritual tools one can heal and guide oneself in the inner realm. Unlock doors within the human psyche.

When using psychoactive plants and substances as tools while dancing and going into trance, this becomes a deep transformative experience. When these psychoactive plant medicines are used for healing and spiritual purposes they are called entheogens. The connection between the ritual, dance and entheogens and what we call Rave and dance culture is the collective consciousness expression of the dance ritual that we humans have been experiencing since the dawn of time. It’s an important ancient rite that we human beings occasionally need in order to stay balanced.

But to use these tools there has to be knowledge and wisdom about the inner self and it’s not for everyone to pursue this path by themselves. The shaman or psychologist is the guide and these tools have to be used in a responsible way if one wants to acquire its positive healing qualities. Usually the shaman or elder is working as a guide and is conducting the overall gathering, ritual or ceremony.

Marcus travelling during the last 20 years made it possible for him to have a first-hand experience with different cultures and countries, and at the same time to feel and connect with collective societies on different parts of the planet. And also to discover how bigger groups of people dancing together look like on different parts of earth. For Marcus this was an opportunity to gain plenty of information. During the years 2007 – 2014 Marcus was living this lifestyle and touring the world on the weekends. In 2014 Minilogue released their second album Blomma. It was all created out in his studio in nature.

In 2014 the music software company Ableton Live wanted to do a documentary about Minilogue and how the music was created. Here the viewer can glimpse into the lifestyle Marcus was living and breathing. The documentary was named after Marcus’ vision of how he tries to express the music “As human as possible”. In the same year, Sebastian decided to leave the Minilogue and Son Kite projects. Marcus expresses his view of humanity and nature:

We are human beings and we live on Mother Earth. She is our home. She is nature. In order to live in harmony and peace we need to live close to nature and follow her. She is our soul. We humans are shaped to live in love, peace and harmony. That is our original state. But now Mother Nature is clearly telling us that we are out of balance and not in touch to where we come from. We are losing connection to our home and to ourselves. We are human beings. We all strive to find love, peace and live in harmony with Mother Nature. For me the word human equals love, peace and harmony. So treat your brother and sister as human as possible.

In 2014 Marcus started the project Nobody Home. It stands for the following:

– free creative expression,
– Home is where your heart is.

For him it was a kind of a political standpoint, to express freely and without borders or limitations. Pointing to being yourself and human.

Today most of his music is released on his own label Home Records. It is his creative expression as an artist. Here he creates everything by himself. Music, producing, mastering and artwork.

Nature, meditation, yoga, shamanism and his 24+ years of experience in the dance music scene makes him a unique artist and a legend in the modern music scene. Expressing musical journeys not bound by styles or trends but with loving intention to inspire and ignite the spirit within the dancer.

I wish to pay homage to Mother Earth, our soul, outer and inner. Our ancient ancestors, wishing for balance and peace. To unite, connect and protect, for humanity and for our brothers and sisters, we are humans co-creating our existence together, we are all in this together. So let’s create an experience of balance, love and kindness for the sake of ourselves and humanity.

As human as possible.
Marcus Henriksson

A Journey Into Oneself by Marcus Henriksson

Alexander Wallon – Räv (Alexanderwallon.bandcamp.com)
Marcus Henriksson & Toffes Värld – Diamantfågeln (Reshape)
Marcus Henriksson & Narada – Cosmic traveler (Home Records, Unreleased)
Alexander Wallon – Jungel (Alexanderwallon.bandcamp.com)
Studio 1 – Yellow (Kompakt)
Alexander Wallon – Nyecut (Alexanderwallon.bandcamp.com)
Bruce Springsteen – State Trooper (Trentemoller Remix) (Bootleg)
Minilogue & Mathew Jonson live at Fabric 2012 (Unreleased)
Pizzeta – Klezmer Feat. Reagadelica (dOP Remix) (Electrochoc)
Alexander Wallon – Vind (Alexanderwallon.bandcamp.com)
Nobody Home – Drum Journey (Marcushenriksson.bandcamp.com)
Marcus Henriksson & P-Woland – Arvet (Marcushenriksson.bandcamp.com)