Cornelius - London, UK - Summer 2007
By: Chris Pratt
One of the most successful Japanese musical exports of recent years, Keigo Oyamada - better known as Cornelius - returned this year after a five year absence with another critically acclaimed full-length. 'Sensuous' contains some of the most crisp, complex and compelling pop music of 2007 so far, the breezy production a huge contrast to the sample-delic sugar-rush that was his breakthrough album 'Fantasma.' Since the 1998 release of that classic, Oyamada's music has both evolved and expanded, from remixes and collaborations with the likes of Damon Albarn and UNKLE to 2002's surprisingly minimalist 'Point' to his increasingly sophisticated use of live synchronized video projections. Now, with a new label and - yet again - a new sound, there was plenty to talk about when we caught up with the Tokyo legend (via his amiable interpreter, Ricky) in London during his recent, much-anticipated UK tour.
Rockfeedback: You recently played the All Tomorrow's Parties festival, what was that like?
Cornelius: I really enjoyed the show at ATP - nice place, great atmosphere and a lot of good bands playing there. I also got to meet some old friends, which was nice. I was only there for a day but I got to meet musicians like The Books, who I've swapped remixes with before.
RFB: Which bands did you enjoy most?
C: Battles! I didn't know them before ATP but they played before me. They were interesting. I spoke with some of the members after the show, and found out that they know my music and have my CD and we spoke about doing some shows together when they come to Japan. I feel there is some musical connection with us in the way we make music - each member of Battles has a different rhythm timing and those are all clamped together to create polyrhythmic effects, which I often use too.
RFB: Your set went down really well at ATP - it seemed like the crowd were particularly impressed by the visual aspect. How long have you been incorporating film projections into your live shows?
C: Probably a little over ten years ago, but I was doing it before I started Cornelius. I really started doing the complete synchronisation of sound and visuals from the days of when I released 'Fantasma'. Mainly I make the videos together with the directors. Most of the videos that were created this time round for this tour were done by Koichiro Tsujikawa, who's been a friend of mine for a long time - before he ever started making films and videos. There's also a couple that I've created and edited alone and there's some collaborations with other directors.
RFB: For many of your songs the sonic and visual aspects seem almost inseparable, but what comes first?
C: Normally the visuals come after, but there are some songs where I work simultaneously on the visuals and the sound.
RFB: How would you describe how your music has developed since 'Point'?
C: Going all the way back to 'Fantasma', that was like a collage of samples - there were lots of sounds and lots of information within the album. Then with 'Point' I reduced the amount of information, tried to keep it simple and used less sounds. For 'Sensuous' I cut off these limitations and decided to have a freer approach. I decided to go with the senses, just like the title. Technically speaking, I recorded in 24-96 bit which is a higher quality sound, so each tone comes out more clearly and you can hear more expression in each individual sound.
RFB: How did you approach 'Sensuous' lyrically?
C: The image of the lyrics comes from the music. I tried to use less words but with much more meaning. My style of writing lyrics this time was like sound poetry where I focus on the vibe of the sound of the word, or visual poetry like haiku where I focus on how the words line up on the page. The meaning of the words, the sound of the vibe that they give out and the beauty of them when they're all lined up.
RFB: The introduction to your current live show announces the performance as 'The Cornelius Group presents Sensuous Synchronized Show'. Do you still see Cornelius as a solo-project or is it more than that now?
C: All the recording is done alone so I stick to the name Cornelius for that, but playing live there are more people involved and it's a bigger production so I call that the Cornelius Group. We can't play the CD exactly as it is, so it does involve each player's input - their perception of the sound of the recording and their creation of new sounds.
RFB: As you've been making music for so many years you must have strong links with the Japanese music scene. Why do you think it is that relatively few Japanese bands have managed to break through in places like the US and the UK?
C: There are many interesting bands, and many terrible bands in Japan! Part of the reason is the distance and then there's also the language barrier. There are interesting scenes within Japan and I feel that music will grow amongst music lovers - it's a smaller world now with the internet and you don't have to go through record labels.
RFB: Speaking of record labels, you seem to have had some trouble with the release of Sensuous - why was there such a delay between releases in Japan and elsewhere?
C: I'm on Warner Records in Japan now - they released 'Sensuous' in October. We were originally going to release it in the UK through Matador (who put out both 'Fantasma' and 'Point'), but the contract with them expired. Then we ran into Korova which is a Warner affiliate and they agreed to release the album, but recently there's been a lack of communication. We found out yesterday that the record label doesn't exist anymore! (laughs). Hopefully the CD is in stores, but I went into a shop today and couldn't find it - I don't see any promotion either.
RFB: That must be really annoying...
C: This is the first time it's happened so I'm more amused than anything else. But as the UK is such a great place to put the record out I want it to go especially well - luckily things have being going good for the US release so far.
Oyamada's music has changed so much since 'Fantasma' that it's hard to believe that the composer of lush, ambient pop songs like 'Breezin'' and 'Wataridori' from 'Sensuous' was also responsible for the raucous cut-and-paste assault of songs like 'Magoo Opening' and 'Count 5 or 6'. However, watching the Cornelius Group at Koko a couple of days later as they blast through the chugging electro-punk of new song 'Gum', its clear that the older, wiser Oyamada has thankfully lost none of his youthful bite.
Artists in this article: Cornelius