Cornelius Announces ‘Refractions’ Album and New Single with Sean Ono Lennon

Cornelius has set an August 19 release date for a new album, Refractions. The Japanese producer and composer, born Keigo Oyamada, accompanied the announcement with the single “Aeons,” a track that pairs his precise, glitchy arrangements with the voice of Sean Ono Lennon.

The single arrives a day after the 40th anniversary of Hands Across America, the charity campaign in which John Lennon participated. Sean Ono Lennon’s presence here adds an unforced layer of lineage, but the song itself stays in the present: a tight plastic groove, syncopated guitar and keyboard stabs, and Lennon’s smooth vocal moving through the mix without trying to dominate it.

“As the world and my surroundings changed at an intense speed, I think all of that inevitably shaped this work,” Oyamada said. “Rather than expressing these ideas directly, I approached them structurally, exploring continuity, transformation, and multiple coexisting states within a single, uninterrupted flow of time.” It’s a characteristically cool-headed framework for an album that also features Shintaro Sakamoto, Arto Lindsay, and Bid from the Monochrome Set.

Refractions is set to arrive via Eat