In a revelation that bridges cutting-edge technology with profound music history, Sir Paul McCartney has announced the completion of what is being hailed as the final Beatles record. The track was made possible by the revolutionary use of artificial intelligence to isolate and purify the voice of his late bandmate, John Lennon, from a decades-old demo.
The groundbreaking project came to light during the superstar's recent interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. McCartney detailed how director Peter Jackson's team, fresh from their work on the acclaimed Get Back documentary series, employed their sophisticated AI-driven audio restoration technology. This 'demixing' technology allowed them to separate Lennon's vocal from a rough cassette recording, freeing it from the instrumentation and background noise that had previously made it unusable.
The Emotional Power of a Purified Voice
'We were able to take John's voice and make it pure,' McCartney explained, his voice laden with the weight of the moment. 'And then we could mix the record, just as we would normally... It's like John is right there in the room.'
This technological miracle has provided an incredibly emotional experience for McCartney and Beatles fans worldwide. It offers a chance to hear the iconic duo collaborate once more, a notion that seemed impossible after Lennon's tragic death in 1980.
From Film Set to Recording Studio
The same AI audio tools were originally developed to allow Jackson's team to remix and enhance the hours of audio recordings from the Let It Be sessions for the Disney+ documentary. Their success in cleaning up those tapes gave McCartney the idea to apply the technology to an old Lennon demo—reportedly a song called 'Now And Then'—that the surviving Beatles had attempted to work on in the 1990s.
McCartney confirmed that the track is now complete and will be released to the world later this year, serving as a poignant and unexpected coda to the most legendary career in popular music.
