Cornelius — Ethereal Essence
Qobuz new release review (June 2024)
As Keigo Oyamada celebrates 30 years of making music as Cornelius, it is remarkable to note just how far his sound has evolved from the groundbreaking avant-pop of his breakthrough 1997 album Fantasma. While his output since has been sporadic — Ethereal Essence is only his fifth, post-Fantasma full-length — the contrast between the intricate, overstuffed-with-ideas material on albums like Point and Sensuous and more minimalist recent work like 2023’s Dream in Dream is impossible to ignore. Ethereal Essence further extends Cornelius’s voyage into ambient experimentation, gathering together “reworks of ambient-tinged works released in recent years.” And, as the Durutti Column homage of lead-off single “Sketch For Spring” makes clear, this effort finds Oyamada indulging in the ephemeral joy of electronic abstractions. While guitars (appropriately) figure prominently in “Sketch for Spring,” the rest of the pieces are built almost solely from richly textured synths and more esoteric digitalia. And yet, despite the experimental nature of much of the album, it is also an overwhelmingly beautiful record. “Xanadu” and “Windmills of My Mind” are both gorgeous, lushly arranged New Age numbers that wouldn’t be out of place on an episode of public radio’s Hearts of Space, while the melodically enchanting “Too Much Love For Sauna (Falling Deep)” features gentle vocals and synth whooshes undergirded with a deep, throbbing, analog low end that could give Thundercat an idea or two. Of course, there’s also enough weirdness to remind you that this is still a Cornelius album, with “Forbidden Apple” (built on giddy, atmospheric electronica and, uh, samples of people biting into apples) and “Koko” (featuring vocal-mirroring computer tones that evoke the legendary primate’s Speak-and-Spell in a way that is both charming and spooky) being the most explicitly “non-ambient” moments here. Closing out with the “remodel” of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s 1980 song “Thatness and Thereness” that Oyamada recorded for the 2022 tribute album to the late pianist and composer, To The Moon And Back — all thoughtful vocals and warm, warbly synths rather than the arch electro-clarity of the original — Ethereal Essence is far more substantial and diverse than its title would imply, charting out a provocative new course for Cornelius.
