Cornelius Japanese Singer Born 1969 in Setagaya

Early life

Keigo Oyamada, who records and performs as Cornelius, was born on 27 January 1969 in Setagaya, a ward of Tokyo. He attended Wakō Gakuen. His first public recognition came as a founding member of the pop duo Flipper's Guitar, formed in 1988 and counted among the key groups of the Shibuya-kei scene in Tokyo.

Career

Flipper's Guitar broke up in 1991. Oyamada then took the name Cornelius and began a solo career, releasing the EP Holidays in the Sun in 1993. In that same year he founded Trattoria Records, a Japanese label that put out work by artists including Kahimi Karie, Takako Minekawa and Hanatarash until it closed in 2002. His first full-length solo record, 69/96, came out in 1995, followed by 96/69 the next year.

His breakthrough abroad came with Fantasma in 1997. American critics compared him to Brian Wilson and Beck, and in 2007 Rolling Stone Japan ranked the album tenth on its list of the greatest Japanese rock albums. In 1999 he played at The Bowlie Weekender, a festival curated by Belle and Sebastian, joined a tour organized by The Flaming Lips, and appeared at the Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, and Coachella festivals. Point followed in 2001, and its use of natural sounds and samples from everyday culture became part of how his music is described. He released Sensuous in 2006 and a surround-sound edition of it in 2008. Later records include Constellations of Music in 2015, Mellow Waves in 2017 and Ripple Waves in 2018. In all, the records list fifteen albums and fifteen singles under his name, among them singles such as "Star Fruits Surf Rider", "Drop" and "If You're Here". He plays guitar, works in experimental music and alternative rock, and has released music through Cherry Red.

He has also been in demand as a collaborator. In 2009 he began performing with the Plastic Ono Band led by Yoko Ono, playing guitar, bass and other instruments on the album Between My Head and the Sky. He has been a member of Metafive, a group that includes Yukihiro Takahashi and Towa Tei, whose first album, META, was released in January 2016. In 2010 he contributed a song to the soundtrack of the film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and in 2011 he began a project with the singer Salyu that produced the album s(o)un(d)beams. He also directed the music for the Tokyo exhibition Design Ah! in 2013 and recorded soundtracks for the Ghost in the Shell: Arise films.

In 2018 he performed three songs from Mellow Waves for NPR's Tiny Desk Concert. In 2024 he held shows marking thirty years since his solo debut and toured internationally under the title "Dream In Dream", and in the same year he composed the music for a Kenzo runway show in Paris.

Recognition

The surround-sound release Sensurround + B Sides earned Cornelius a Grammy Award nomination in the immersive audio category.

Personal life

Oyamada married the musician Takako Minekawa in 2000, and the marriage ended in 2012.