Cornelius

CORNELIUS RETURNS WITH FIRST FULL-LENGTH IN 5 YEARS

Sensuous, the new full-length album from Cornelius, detonates on impact with the listener’s consciousness. It’s a bold and nearly infinite record, a twisting Mabius strip weaving simulation into reality and back again.

It is, in a word, genius.

Its composer knows the peaks and valleys of our contemporary emotional landscape. Cornelius, aka Keigo Oyamada, is a visionary postpunk sound designer of a bright new age.

“He vents his wild side through his uninhibited almost childlike sonic stylings, with a charged orgy of crunchy metal riffs, mutated Disney-like anthems and psychedelic vocals.” – Time Magazine

Cornelius is a sound junkie. Critics have dubbed him the Japanese Beck and the 21st century Brian Wilson.

Sensuous resists all traditional modes of classification. Yet Cornelius has always marched to the beat of a different drum machine, even in his wildly eclectic habitat of Tokyo, Japan.

Since exploding onto the international scene in 1997 with Fantasma, his cut-and-paste opus, Cornelius has dazed and amused fans worldwide with his freeform pop aesthetic and playful sense of humor.

Cornelius Followed up Fantsama with 2002’s Point. A departure from its collage style predecessor, Point was organic in nature, looping sounds such as a drop of water, a classical guitar or just the sound of a forest, creating his own brand of “rainforest rock” and solidifying his stature as a true innovator.

With Sensuous, Cornelius further explores dazzling atmospherics. It’s a disciplined sound that’s also wildly experimental, bursting with electronic pulsewaves, wood-grain acoustics, minimalist interludes and raw guitar freakouts. Sure, you could dance to it, but you could also throw on the headphones, sit back in your Eames chair and get whisked away to Keigo’s multidimensional planet of sound.

“Fit Song” immediately thrusts listeners into the fray at a deliberate hyperspeed: kaleidoscopic beats hang suspended in the air; words and plastic synths float asymmetrically like rocks in a Zen garden, hovering on the edge of order and chaos.

Pitchfork said, ”’Fit Song’ is a world-wind of mid-air motion, it’s fu**ing incredible, to say the least. Who knew everyday items such as sugarcubes, slippers, clay, toothpaste and lightbulbs could have such flair.

Cornelius, a multimedia savant, has remixed Bloc Party, Beck, Merzbow and the late James Brown. He’s worked with Ryuichi Sakamoto and lounge-jazz noisenik Arto Lindsay. He’s displayed his visual works at the Barbican JAM exhibition and contributed music to the Shhh exhibition at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. Cornelius, as well as a recent exhibition at the Queensland Museum of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia.

Now Cornelius continues to bring his legendary live show, complete with synchronized video and one-of-a-kind lighting back, in an even more evolved version.

“I imagine a sound and then I try it. But that’s not as interesting as when accidents happen. That’s what makes music interesting.” Cornelius, Esquire Magazine

You’ll hear it all on Sensuous. Meditation bells chime and shimmer, robotic splash-tinkling xylophone and vinyl static. Cornelius is back indeed. Let’s give him a warm welcome ladies and gents.

“His attention to detail is again underlined. Behind each jagged guitar line, intricate harmony and soaring melody is a motif collage of sound, densely constructed and delicately created.” -Sleazenation

“The collision of noise and melody is natural to Keigo. Beach Boys harmonies, deft pop and beautiful My Bloody Valentine guitar.” -Esquire