Producer and remixer extraordinaire Keigo Oyamada, a.k.a Cornelius, has announced his first collection of all new music in over 11 years. Entitled Mellow Waves, the album is due out July 21st via Rostrum Records (June 28th in Japan). Mellow Waves comes over a decade after Sensuous, the last full-length released under the Cornelius moniker. Since then, Oyamada has released a number of remix albums and contributed to film and TV scores. As a taste of what his return to solo recording sounds like, he’s shared the video for Mellow Waves’ lead single, “あなたがいるなら (If You’re Here)”. The track is full of jazzy electronics, while the Koichiro Tsujikawa-directed clip finds gorgeously rendered 3D objects dancing through the air to the music.
Keigo Oyamada (小山田 圭吾? Oyamada Keigo, born January 27, 1969), better known by his stage name Cornelius (CORNELIUS（コーネリアス）? Kōneriasu), is a Japanese recording artist and producer who co-founded Flipper's Guitar, an influential Shibuya-kei band, and subsequently embarked on a solo career. In 1997, he released the album Fantasma, which landed him praise from American music critics, who called him a "modern day Brian Wilson" or the "Japanese Beck". Career Oyamada was born in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. His first claim to fame was as a member of the pop duo Flipper's Guitar, one of the key groups of the Tokyo Shibuya-kei scene. Following the disbandment of Flipper's Guitar in 1991, Oyamada donned the "Cornelius" moniker and embarked on a successful solo career. He chose his pseudonym in tribute to the character of the same name from the movie Planet of the Apes. He commissioned a song, about himself, on Momus' 1999 album Stars Forever. In 2005, The Spinto Band referenced him in their song "Japan Is An Island" on their album Nice and Nicely Done. As of September 2006, he was no longer signed to Matador Records. In 2006 and 2007 respectively, the song "The Micro Disneycal World Tour" from the Fantasma album, was used for Nick Parks' "Creature Comforts" and Sky television's "See, Surf, Speak" advertisements in the UK. It had also been used several years earlier in an ironic NFL (US football) television commercial in the USA, which juxtaposed the song's relaxing qualities with video clips showing rapid, aggressive football playmaking. In 2010, he contributed the song "Katayanagi Twins Battle Song" to the film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. In 2013, he participated with Taku Satoh and Yugo Nakamura directing the music for the exhibition Design Ah! at 21 21 Design Sight in Tokyo. Music style American music journalists often describe Cornelius's musical style as being similar to Beck's, whom he acknowledges as an influence along with The Beach Boys, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream and the Brazilian band Kassin + 2, among others. The music of Cornelius could be described as experimental and exploratory, and often incorporates dissonant elements alongside more familiar harmonically "pleasing" sounds. This tension, plus his practice of bringing in sounds and samples from mass culture, pure electronic tones, and sounds from nature (such as on his Point album), lead him to being sometimes categorized as an "acquired taste."
Producer and remixer extraordinaire Keigo Oyamada, a.k.a Cornelius, has announced his first collection of all new music in over 11 years. Entitled Mellow Waves, the album is due out July 21st via Rostrum Records (June 28th in Japan).
ResponderEliminarMellow Waves comes over a decade after Sensuous, the last full-length released under the Cornelius moniker. Since then, Oyamada has released a number of remix albums and contributed to film and TV scores.
As a taste of what his return to solo recording sounds like, he’s shared the video for Mellow Waves’ lead single, “あなたがいるなら (If You’re Here)”. The track is full of jazzy electronics, while the Koichiro Tsujikawa-directed clip finds gorgeously rendered 3D objects dancing through the air to the music.
Keigo Oyamada (小山田 圭吾? Oyamada Keigo, born January 27, 1969), better known by his stage name Cornelius (CORNELIUS（コーネリアス）? Kōneriasu), is a Japanese recording artist and producer who co-founded Flipper's Guitar, an influential Shibuya-kei band, and subsequently embarked on a solo career. In 1997, he released the album Fantasma, which landed him praise from American music critics, who called him a "modern day Brian Wilson" or the "Japanese Beck".
ResponderEliminarCareer
Oyamada was born in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. His first claim to fame was as a member of the pop duo Flipper's Guitar, one of the key groups of the Tokyo Shibuya-kei scene. Following the disbandment of Flipper's Guitar in 1991, Oyamada donned the "Cornelius" moniker and embarked on a successful solo career. He chose his pseudonym in tribute to the character of the same name from the movie Planet of the Apes. He commissioned a song, about himself, on Momus' 1999 album Stars Forever.
In 2005, The Spinto Band referenced him in their song "Japan Is An Island" on their album Nice and Nicely Done.
As of September 2006, he was no longer signed to Matador Records.
In 2006 and 2007 respectively, the song "The Micro Disneycal World Tour" from the Fantasma album, was used for Nick Parks' "Creature Comforts" and Sky television's "See, Surf, Speak" advertisements in the UK. It had also been used several years earlier in an ironic NFL (US football) television commercial in the USA, which juxtaposed the song's relaxing qualities with video clips showing rapid, aggressive football playmaking.
In 2010, he contributed the song "Katayanagi Twins Battle Song" to the film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
In 2013, he participated with Taku Satoh and Yugo Nakamura directing the music for the exhibition Design Ah! at 21 21 Design Sight in Tokyo.
Music style
American music journalists often describe Cornelius's musical style as being similar to Beck's, whom he acknowledges as an influence along with The Beach Boys, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream and the Brazilian band Kassin + 2, among others. The music of Cornelius could be described as experimental and exploratory, and often incorporates dissonant elements alongside more familiar harmonically "pleasing" sounds. This tension, plus his practice of bringing in sounds and samples from mass culture, pure electronic tones, and sounds from nature (such as on his Point album), lead him to being sometimes categorized as an "acquired taste."