"There is noise in beauty," Cornelius tells me, typically poetically, when describing some of his favourite musical influences.
Last summer saw the long-awaited return of Cornelius (aka Keigo Oyamada) following the release of Mellow Waves – his first album in eleven years and the follow up to 2006’s Sensuous.
Dubbed the Japanese Beck in the 1990s after the release of the ground-breaking Fantasma in 1997, Cornelius fused 60s Beach Boys-like harmonies with krautrock, French pop and synth electronica, creating a sound light years ahead of its time. Mixed with his art-installation-like live performances and avant-garde album art, Cornelius’ unique blend of art-pop earned him a legion of fans all over the world.
Here, Cornelius talks us through some of the vast influences on his dynamic music tastes which encompass everything from guitar rock, 80s pop and 60s psychedelic folk to jazz fusion and post-punk.
Opening up about some of the influences on his teenage years, Cornelius explains how revisiting them inspired many of the sounds on his latest album, which mixes eastern avant-electronica and krautrock with jazz and bossa nova. Cornelius describes some of the new music he has discovered thanks to his teenage son, who works at a record shop in Tokyo in his spare time.
Cornelius also tells us more about his projects in the last eleven years and how they have influenced some of his Baker’s Dozen choices, including his work on writing the film score for anime-hit Ghost In The Shell Arise and through his appearances with Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band.
Cornelius’s album Mellow Waves is out on vinyl on January 26th and he plays Field Day this June – for more information go here. Click the picture of the man himself to begin reading through his selections.
