Cornelius

Cornelius is an engaging presence. The notion of synaesthesia is one discussed in reference to artists like The Flaming Lips and Super Furry Animals, with good reason, but Keigo Oyamada is a step up from both of those audio-visual stalwarts. This is a truly interactive show, but one beyond novelty and without pretension.

Beginning with a ludicrously well-rehearsed light/music interaction in which each note corresponds to a different coloured spotlight (in the Sensuous artwork scheme) that illuminates each band member (who all stand behind a Sigur Rós-esque curtain at the front of the stage), it’s clear that the amount of time and effort behind all this is just tremendous. When the curtain finally falls, revealing Oyamada and band, there’s a synthetic warmth flying out from the colossal video screen and the floodlights that point at us.

The set is made up mostly of material from Sensuous, with the odd impressionist avian-fixated flight of fancy from Point, meaning that we’re short on hooks and tunes, but long on atmosphere, expert construction and release of tension and, as mentioned, a true sense of interactivity. ‘Wataridori’ is an epic and form-driven expansion on its own themes, and proves in its slinkiness that Oyamada has become an extremely accomplished guitarist over the years. Though the instrument is never the complete focus of his recorded work, tonight he properly shreds and widdles at every opportunity, to the delight of those craving those hooky songs of old. The video for ‘Tone Twilight Zone’ plays on the screen, and the band purposely downplay their performance so that the audience is encouraged to get lost in the footage of a hand walking (with remarkable personification) across a variety of domestic locales – this is where Cornelius proves that he’s a master of synaesthesia. Rather than saying “my tunes ROCK, here’s a video! _”, he’s said: “I completely understand the balance between senses, and I will make my music work for the image to complement it… and my tunes ROCK!”

Rock, then, has to make an appearance, and it does in the ad-fodder classic ‘Count 5 Or 6’, which elicits the biggest physical movements of the evening. The genius-masquerading-as-kitsch return to musique concrete ‘Magoo Opening’ is similarly well-received, and keeps the “I’ve been a fan since forever” brigade happy, but the material from Sensuous reveals itself more and more as the sonic are that Oyamada is freest in. He has room to experiment not in the scattergun way of Fantasma, but in a more progressive, intuitive and possibly more enchanting fashion.

Add to all this some audience participation (‘Aura Lee’ played on Theremin) and an encore played partly from the sound desk with the weirdest toy in the world, and you’ve got the Sensuous Synchronized Show we were promised at the beginning. A master of controlling human reaction, subtleties and genuine musical innovation.