, also known by his moniker , is a Japanese musician and producer who co-founded Flipper's Guitar, an influential Shibuya-kei band, and subsequently embarked on a solo career.
Oyamada was born in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. His 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 solo career. He commissioned a song, about himself, on Momus' 1999 album Stars Forever.
In 1997, he released the album Fantasma, which landed him praise from American music critics, who called him a "modern-day Brian Wilson" or the "Japanese Beck".
In April 1999, he performed at The Bowlie Weekender, a music festival curated by Belle and Sebastian. Starting in August, he joined The International Music Against Brain Degeneration Revue, a tour organized by The Flaming LipsâÂÂalso Bowlie participantsâÂÂwhich featured artists including Sebadoh, Robyn Hitchcock, IQU, and Sonic Boom. That same year, he also performed at the Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, and Coachella festivals.
As of September 2006, he was no longer signed to Matador Records.
In 2007, Rolling Stone Japan ranked Fantasma in 10th place amongst the "100 Greatest Japanese Rock Albums of All Time".
In December 2008, Sensurround + B Sides was nominated for Best Surround Sound Album at the 2009 GRAMMY Awards.
In 2009, he began performing as a member of Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band. On the album Between My Head and the Sky, released in September of that year, he performed on guitar, bass, Tenori-on, programming, and percussion.
In 2010, he contributed the song "Katayanagi Twins vs. Sex Bob-Omb" to the film soundtrack of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
In 2011, he began the salyu ÃÂ salyu project with Japanese singer Salyu, producing the album s(o)un(d)beams, released in April.
In 2013, he participated with Taku Satoh and Yugo Nakamura directing the music for the exhibition Design Ah! at 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo.
In January 2016, METAFIVEâÂÂa band formed by Yukihiro Takahashi, Yoshinori Sunahara, Towa Tei, , , and OyamadaâÂÂreleased its first album, META.
In 2017, he produced the vinyl record Audio Check Track for checking audio equipment settings. That October, he also performed as a special guest at BeckâÂÂs live show at the Nippon Budokan.
In 2018, he performed three songs from his album Mellow Waves on NPR's âÂÂTiny Desk ConcertâÂÂ. In the same year, he composed "Audio Architecture" for an exhibition of the same name held in Tokyo. The title of the exhibition was inspired by a phrase used by Sean Ono Lennon to describe CorneliusâÂÂs music.
In 2019, he released the digital single "Too Much Love for Sauna," written as the opening theme for Sado, a sauna-themed Japanese TV drama series. Later, a newly arranged version was released in 2024 and used as the opening theme for the sequel, under the title "Too Much Love for Sauna (Falling Deep)."
In 2020, he released a limited white vinyl LPâÂÂa collection of tracks originally written as background music for , a cultural complex in Shibuya. RosalÃÂa shared a Met GalaâÂÂthemed Vogue playlist in May, featuring her all-time favorite songs and including CorneliusâÂÂs âÂÂTypewrite Lesson.âÂÂ
In 2021, he released âÂÂForbidden Apple,â an instrumental track featuring the sound of biting an apple, written to showcase SonyâÂÂs 360 Reality Audio surround technology (and can also be heard in standard stereo). That same year, he contributed âÂÂKora (Cornelius Remix)â to GoGo PenguinâÂÂs May release GGP/RMX.
In 2022, he performed Yellow Magic OrchestraâÂÂs âÂÂCueâ with Haruomi Hosono at a concert celebrating Yukihiro TakahashiâÂÂs 50th anniversary in music, and contributed a remodel of âÂÂThatness and TherenessâÂÂ, originally from Ryuichi SakamotoâÂÂs 1980 album B-2 Unit, to A Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto â To the Moon and Back, released in November.
In 2023, he exhibited his installation works at âÂÂAmbient Kyoto 2023,â which showcased ambient-themed audiovisual art. In December, he co-curated a music playlist with Terry Riley for the BBC Radio program âÂÂAmbient FocusâÂÂ.
In 2024, he held Cornelius 30th Anniversary shows in Japan and "Dream In Dream" World Tour 2024. At the Barbican Centre in London, Ichiko Aoba performed as a special guest. he also created the show music for KENZO Fall-Winter 2024 Runway Show by Nigo, presented at Paris Fashion Week in January. Later that year, VelludoâÂÂa neo-psychedelic band formed in the late 1980s around him and âÂÂreleased its first album, Between The Lines.
In January 2025, Ichiko Aoba brought him out as a special guest at her 15th anniversary concert in Kyoto. In March, he performed at co-headlining concerts with The Flaming Lips in Tokyo, and in October with Ryoji Ikeda in Osaka. The Japanese CD edition of Sparksâ May release MAD! included âÂÂDo Things My Own Way (Cornelius Remix)âÂÂ. On October 7, Gwenno digitally released âÂÂUtopia (Cornelius Remix)âÂÂ.
Cornelius was a pioneer of the Shibuya-kei style of music in Japan. The music of Cornelius could be described as experimental and exploratory, and often incorporates dissonant elements alongside more familiar harmonically "pleasing" sounds. He also incorporates sounds and samples from mass culture, pure electronic tones, and sounds from nature (such as on his Point album).
Oyamada married musician and collaborator Takako Minekawa in 2000 and they have one child, Milo, named after the son of Cornelius in Planet of the Apes. They divorced in 2012. Since 2020, he has been in a long term relationship with Minami Yamaguchi, the owner of a fashion shop in Setagaya, Tokyo. He is a second cousin of Joi Ito and Miki Berenyi, the latter who appears on the song "The Spell of a Vanishing Loveliness" from Mellow Waves.
In interviews in 1994 and 1995, Oyamada said that he had bullied students with in school. In one interview, Oyamada dismissed the incidents with a laugh. In a 1995 interview for Quick Japan, Oyamada said he was involved with a group of bullies who had locked a disabled student in a vaulting box, wrapped another student in gymnastics mattresses and kicked them, made fun of a disabled student running a long-distance race.
He also said that such acts were committed only up until his early teens, and recounted several episodes reflecting his friendship with the disabled student, which lasted from elementary through high school. The disabled student himself also responded in the same articleâÂÂduring the interviewerâÂÂs visit to see himâÂÂwhen asked whether he had been close to Oyamada, saying that he had.
On July 14, 2021, the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (TOCOG) announced that Oyamada would be a composer of the 2020 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. Then, the sharing of a blog postâÂÂdistorting his portrayal by selectively quoting his past interviewsâÂÂby an anti-Olympics account on Twitter triggered a social media backlash. Two days later, Oyamada tweeted an apology, but also said articles had contained exaggerations or mistakes that he had not corrected. Toshirà  Mutà Â, the chief executive of the Organising Committee, said he wanted Oyamada to remain. On July 19, four days before the ceremony, Oyamada decided to leave the creative team for the Tokyo Olympics on his own terms.
In September 2021, Oyamada appeared in a two-hour interview with Shà «kan Bunshun addressing why he took so many years to address his past actions. He made an additional statement which stated how a blog post that circulated online edited information from past interviews to describe Oyamada as the perpetrator, even though the original Quick Japan interview stated that he did not commit the acts in question.
Later, two major publishers in Japan released books examining the controversy surrounding Oyamada. The author of one of the books discusses a series of eventsâÂÂin which a distorted image of him, shaped in the 2000s on 2channel, an anonymous Japanese message board, and later on a blog, led to an online backlash that was subsequently reported by mainstream media without sufficient verificationâÂÂas an example of an infodemic.
Another author, after having interviewed several of OyamadaâÂÂs former classmates, states that he was unable to confirm facts as reported by a major daily newspaper.
The discography of Cornelius consists of seven studio albums, three soundtracks, twelve remix and compilation albums, three extended plays, twenty-eight singles and seven video albums.