The Beatles Released The New Song 'Now And Then' After Almost Two Decades, With AI Technology Assistance

Now and Then, the latest song from The Beatles was created through advanced technology. (photo: twitter thebeatles)

JAKARTA - This week the Beatles music legend released the song "Now and Then," their first "new" song since 1995. The song comes on streaming service with Atmos mixes that mark the historic moment the legendary band fans have been waiting for. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr used the latest technology and machine learning to perfect this song from John Lennon's old record.

In the mid-1990s, The Beatles tried to work on Lennon's "Now and Then" demo. However, the project was stalled due to technical problems on original recordings that were difficult to overcome. "In John's demo footage, the piano was a bit difficult to hear. At that time, we didn't have the technology to cut the sound effectively. Every time we wanted to highlight John's voice, the piano appeared and obscured the details of the music," McCartney said, quoted by VOI from The Verge.

Although some attempts were made at that time, the song "Now and Then" was never recorded. "We are running out of time and energy. Finally, this song was forgotten in the archive warehouse," McCartney said. George Harrison's death in 2001 made it even more difficult for this song to be revealed to the public. However, after nearly a quarter of a century, McCartney and Starr decided to return to finish this song.

The turning point came earlier this decade when Peter Jackson, a famous director, used advanced technology to support the Get Back documentary project. With this technology, they can separate the components of the song from old records, including John Lennon's demo.

McCartney and Starr see this opportunity as an opportunity to revive "Now and Then." "We can re-mix this song and make recordings worth hearing," McCartney said. In this process, McCartney recorded the bass part, Starr added drums, and producer strip Martin created a string arrangement reminiscent of the Beatles-era music style.

Documentaries about this song do not provide definite details regarding Harrison's contribution to the song that has been recorded. Although it is known that Harrison was not a big fan of the "Now and Then" demo at first, McCartney ensured that Harrison's part of the Anthology session was maintained. In addition, McCartney himself played Harrison's style-inspired guitar slide solo.

Despite doubts from some fans, all parties involved in this project agreed that "Now and Then" would be revived properly.

"My father would be happy, because he likes to experiment with recording technology. I think this song is really beautiful," said Sean Ono Lennon, John Lennon's son.

"Still working on The Beatles' music in 2023... wow. We're really exploring cutting-edge technology, something that definitely caught the interest of The Beatles. 'Now and Then' may be The Beatles' last song. And we're all involved in it, so this is an authentic recording of The Beatles," McCartney said.

While this may be The Beatles' final moment, the development of track separation technologies like this is expected to revive various other recordings that have become part of the history of music in the decades to come.