Succumb to the Mellow Waves of Cornelius
Photo by Masayoshi Sukita

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Succumb to the Mellow Waves of Cornelius

After a ten year hiatus, the Japanese artist has returned with his sixth album, "Mellow Waves." We sat down with him to celebrate.

This article originally appeared on Noisey Mexico. Japanese musician Keigo Oyamada became a cult artist almost overnight. When Matador produced his third record, Fantasma, under the pseudonym Cornelius in 1997, the world received the crazy cocktail of 60s pop, hip-hop, indie-rock, bossa-nova, jazz, and electronic music with open arms—not to mention in his native Japan, where he became an enormous pop star—earning him comparisons with Beck, who barely one year earlier had produced his revealing album, Odelay, which shared his exploration of where the limits between genres blur. Since then, Cornelius's work hasn't stopped transforming before our very ears, refusing to be pigeonholed and always seeking innovation in every sphere, from composition to recording and production. And yes, always maintaining a relaxed atmosphere that has characterized his career, and that of Shibuya-key, the easy-to-listen-to pop sub-genre that he helped create and popularize.

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After Fantasma, he distanced himself from the aesthetic it made popular, producing the albums Point (2001) and Sensuous (2006), two CDs that stand out for their sonic eccentricity and their overflow of ideas that still sound new, as well as which served to cement his live shows as impressive spectacles in which the perfect synchronization of music with lights and visuals resulted in a sensorial overload that impacted concert-goers.

And then, nothing more was heard from Cornelius. For 10 years, Oyamada devoted himself to projects that were equally fruitful but which were in other genres, such as his transcendental work putting together the soundtrack for the anime movies from the Ghost in The Shell saga. He also produced the ambitious CD S(o)un(d)beams, by his compatriot, the singer Salyu, and toured with Yoko Ono's Plastic Ono Band and the legendary Yellow Magic Orchestra. It wasn't until 2016 when he reappeared to promote the reissue of Fantasma by Lefse Records, going on a tour during which he played the album in its entirety, night after night.

That move ended up being the preamble to his formal return to Cornelius. This July 21 he released Mellow Waves, his sixth album, and he couldn't sound in better form. The album's title hints at the sweet sounds and warm sensations that radiate from its 10 songs, which roll through the ears, clouding the mind with nostalgic memories. The guitars, both electric and acoustic, play the role of protagonist like never before, saturated with chords, arpeggios, and even solos in most of the songs, including the simple "If You're Here" and "Sometime / Someplace".

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Melodies abound, brushing up against us, and they're used with the goal of moving us from inside. And they achieve that, for example, in "The Spell of Vanishing Loneliness," the collaboration with Miki Berenyi, vocalist of the recently reunited shoegaze group Lush. They also give an explicit wink to earlier work, such as "Surfin' on Mind Waves Pt. 2," the continuation of the orchestral track from the same theme made for Ghost in The Shell Arise, or "Helix / Spiral," an animated, electronic theme that uses the same synthetic voice explored in previous classics, such as "Count Five or Six".

Photo by Masayoshi Sukita

The world needed new music from Cornelius and it arrives at this moment as a balm for the soul, with enough personality to satisfy the most restless. We were able to talk with Oyamada via Skype, through his interpreter, and he shared the conceptual and technical details of Mellow Waves with us, as well as his relationship with Latin American culture and whether or not he's seen the Hollywood version of Ghost in The Shell.

Noisey: The Cornelius project has had a low profile for more than ten years, since the release of Sensuous in 2006. What have you been doing that whole time?
Keigo Oyamada: For some people who follow me from the other side of the world, it seemed that I was keeping a low profile, but in reality I've been busy with many different projects for the past 10 years. I've been part of the support team for Yellow Magic Orchestra of Yoko Ono's Plastic Ono Band—both on the album and live; I've produced for the Japanese singer Salyu x Salyu, and I've also worked on [anime] films of Ghost in The Shell, as well as the Japanese kids' show, Design Ah, where I'm the sound producer. So I've had a busy ten years. Last year you re-released your album Fantasma, and accompanied that release with a tour in which you played the album in its entirety. What was it like to dust off all these songs after almost 20 years, to play them again and connect anew with them?
It's been a moment to reflect about the fact that 20 years have passed since they were released. It was a moment of great introspection.

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Did the fact that you'd been in contact with the songs of Fantasma have any impact on the rerelease of this new disc?
To be honest, the re-release and the subsequent tour had nothing to do with this album. Touring wasn't even part of the plan; it just happened. They asked me to do it and I did. But I knew that I wanted to do this album, and was doing it as everything else was happening. It's just that there were some changes with the live band on the tour, and so it seemed like a good time to get a new band, play together, and get ready for the launch of this album and its tour.

You normally work alone on your albums. Was this the case on Mellow Waves or did you have other musicians in the recording sessions?
I'm the only musician who appears on the album, really, with the exception of a few collaborations. But the sound engineers, [Toyoaki] Mishima and [Toru] Takayama, are the same ones I've always used and are an important part of the recording process. Would you say there's a particular concept behind the new album?
It's what it says it is. If I had to describe a theme behind the sound, it would be the concept of sound waves themselves. And the general feeling is mellow, so that's how the title came about: just vibes and sweetness.

From Point onward, you've gotten much more involved with electronica and with very defined methods of composition and production that have defined each album. Was there a particular strategy behind the creation of Mellow Waves ?
As you mentioned, there are different methods and strategies that I've tried with each of my releases. In Point, I treated sound like a point; the sounds could be points that didn't necessarily overlap with others. In this way, each individual sound had its own place within a structure, and this gave the sound originality, the fact that there are distinct sounds in their own places. In the case of the new disc, the same points and structures are there, but with a wave imposed on them, which would be a melody, something more continuous that runs over a particular point.

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Cornelius playing "Mellow Waves" live for the first time on June 27, at a secret location in Tokyo. Photo by Hideki Hamada.

The guitar has always been your main instrument, something that perhaps is much more noticeable in your live shows, and they have a special relevance in Mellow Waves, especially in the singles "If You're Here" and "Sometime / Someplace". What do you do to pull emotional sounds out of the instrument?
I brought many of the projects [I mentioned to you earlier] to bear on this album. As you said, the guitar has always been my main instrument, but perhaps for Cornelius it hasn't been the predominant one. In the past 10 years, many of the projects in which I've been involved were as a guitarist, so I've had many more chances to perform with the guitar. Perhaps that was the reason why so much of this new disc is more focused on guitar.

You're known for embracing new technologies each time you make an album. A notable example is having mixed Sensuous in 5.1 surround sound. Was there any new software or hardware you wanted to try in Mellow Waves ?
When I made the album, I used a lot of different amplifier simulators and other technologies. But I think that, in the biggest sense of "technology" to which you refer, in the same way I used sampling, synthesizers, vinyl, and other big developments in technology, there's not a notable difference in this album. I think you'll see a lot more of that in my next release, which will be a version of virtual reality in album form. I'm working on it right now.

You're already prepping the Mellow Waves tour, which launches in Japan in October, preceded by a few festival dates. What's a Cornelius show like today?
The new band includes Yumiko [Ohno] from Buffalo Daughter, a Japanese band. The show will have new lights and visuals; we'll be a band of four people, playing in synch with the visuals. Will Latin America be included in this tour?
To be honest, I want to go, especially to Mexico, because the time I was supposed to go, there was the swine flu scare [at the beginning of 2009]. In the end, the tour was canceled because they didn't allow us to fly to Mexico; we were going to go with Deerhoof and I really wanted to play there, so I hope someone invites me to play this time.

Cornelius performing "Mellow Waves" live for the first time on June 27 at a secret location in Tokyo. Photo by Hideki Hamada.

In your discography, one feels an influence of Latin American music, Brazilian in particular. In fact, you collaborated with the Mexican Institute of Sound and Toy Selectah on the album Compass. What's your relationship with Latin American culture like?
There's a guy named Camilo [Lara], who's from a label that distributed his music previously, and who asked me to play the theremin on a project. Maybe you're talking about him? Yes, exactly.
He's an interesting guy. He always sent me his annual mix tapes and I liked them a lot, I enjoyed being in touch with him. I've known him for maybe twenty years and we still keep in touch. As far as my relationship with Latin American culture, unfortunately, I haven't been to Mexico, nor to other places that have influenced me enormously, like Argentina and Brazil. I'd love to visit and learn more [about their cultures]. I've played with some musicians like Arto Lindsay, [Alexandre] Kassin, and Moreno Veloso, Caetano's son. I know them very well and when they come to Japan, I have the opportunity to play with them; it's something I enjoy a lot. You've become known for your remixes of other artists, your collaborations, and your participation in many projects. What do you think about your desire to work with other people and your music.
The best part of playing music is that you have a lot of experiences. Working with the music of other people gives me the opportunity to see how they work and to understand their music better, which, in a way, informs my thinking about how I make my own music. Sometimes, these things influence me or make me think about the whole process. But, more than anything, it's an opportunity to get to know many different types of music and, in most cases, I do it for the experience. What did you think about the Hollywood version of Ghost in The Shell ?
I haven't seen it yet. I saw the previews and it looked good. Have you already heard the soundtrack?
No, I haven't heard it. Who did it? Clint Mansell and Lorne Balfe.
I'm waiting for the right moment. [Laughs] Follow Algodón Egipcio on Twitter.