Cornelius (born Keigo Oyamada (小山田圭吾) January 27, 1969 in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese recording artist and producer.
He was ranked at number 43 in a list of Japan's top 100 musicians by HMV.
Oyamada's 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.
American music journalists often describe Cornelius's musical style as being similar to Beck's, whom he acknowledges as an influence along with The Beatles, 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 Pointalbum), lead him to being sometimes categorized as an "acquired taste."
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.
Oyamada married fellow musician and collaborator Takako Minekawa in 2000 and they have one child, Milo, named after the son of Cornelius in Planet of the Apes. He is a second cousin of Joi Ito.
His song Wataridori 2 is available for download via the Creative Commons CD
As of September 2006, he is no longer signed to Matador Records.
In 2006 and 2007 respectively, the song "The Microdisneycal World Tour" from the "Fantasma" album, was used for Nick Parks' "Creature Comforts" and Sky television's "See, Surf, Speak" advertisements in the UK.
Reviews:
Amazon.com
From the first cut--"Mic Check," one of the coolest disc openers heard in ages--it's apparant that Fantasma is something special. To hear electronic musician Cornelius (aka Keigo Oyamada) in full effect, skip ahead to "Monkey," which bends blistering shoe-gazing rock with goofy sound effects, lush, surf's up vocals, and a pleasantly modulating 1980s synth with a loud, distorting drum-roll sample. Cornelius's rock-savvy, playful, and idiosyncratic musical collage works as much off the tension between disparate, sampled sounds as their seamless dance alongside each other. Fantasma is firmly in the spirit of the anything-goes, D.I.Y. tradition of both punk rock and early hip-hop. --Mike McGonigal
Spin
Fantasma, [Cornelius's] third full-length and debut U.S. album, is an exuberant kaleidoscope of hip-hop, noisecore, film soundtracks, cheesy listening, indie rock, even Sesame Street.... Fantasma is an endearing music-obsessive-comes-of-age tale--from Saturday morning TV to arena rock to bootleg Jean-Jacques Perrey reissues--but once the initial weirdness-buzz wears off, there's not a whole lot to latch onto.
Tracklisting:
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