About

From his early days as a Shibuya-kei pioneer to the impressionistic sonics of his later work, experimental pop auteur Cornelius always pushes musical boundaries. The striking juxtaposition of sampling and hip-hop-influenced beats, rock, and vintage pop on albums such as 1995's 69/96 laid the groundwork for Shibuya-kei's playfully omnivorous approach. It also paved the way for Cornelius' 1997 breakthrough Fantasma, a dizzying blend of Motorik rhythms, yé-yé melodies, and Beach Boys harmonies that introduced his music to listeners outside of Japan (where his albums regularly appeared in the Top Ten). His music shifted dramatically with 2001's Point, a dazzling exploration of shifting tones, forms, and spaces that set the tone for his subsequent albums. Following 2007's hypnotic Sensuous, Cornelius established himself as a respected veteran of the Japanese music scene, touring and recording with Yellow Magic Orchestra and Yoko Ono, and composing music for film, television, and video games. In the 2010s and 2020s, he balanced his high-profile projects with albums such as 2017's Mellow Waves and 2023's Dream in Dream, which combined intimate moods with innovative layers of electronic and acoustic sounds.

Cornelius’s seventh studio album falls more in line with the Japanese multi-instrumentalist’s previous release, 2017’s largely ambient Mellow Waves, than any of his earlier (and livelier) efforts, and the two back-to-back albums point to an emerging late-period trend toward minimalism. But while Mellow Waves stripped Cornelius’s sound down to its most essential elements, Dream in Dream effectively leverages his keen compositional abilities with his ear for catchy pop melodies. It’s best to consider Dream in Dream as a romantic collection of richly textured indietronica rather than an audacious next step for Cornelius. After two decades, expecting him to repeat himself wouldn’t just be wrongheaded but misses the point entirely: The music on Dream in Dream points to an artist interested solely in marching to the beat of his own drum. — via Slant

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Label: Warner Music Japan
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Repress: 2024
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Indie Rock, Experimental, Dream Pop

File under: Japanese Pop
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