John Lennon returns to sing with the Beatles

Incredible, but true (almost). John Lennon returns to sing with the Beatles and the last unreleased song will be released within the year. A marvel of artificial intelligence that extracted the singer’s voice from an old love song played on the piano (probably Now and then of 1978). A composition that would be part of a cassette with the inscription “For Paul” was recorded by Lennon before his death in 1980 and given to Paul McCartney by his widow Yoko Ono in 1994.

there is no music more than once

It all stems from Peter Jackson’s documentary Get Back, in which sound engineer Emile de la Rey trained computers to recognize the Beatles’ voices, separating them from instruments and background noise. “It was possible to extract John Lennon’s voice from a small piece of poor quality tape,” explained the former bassist, who had already duetted with Lennon’s hologram on a previous tour. “It’s a bit scary, but exciting, because it’s the future. We just have to see where it takes us,” McCartney said, commenting on the many controversies over the use of the technology in his field. If once upon a time, in fact, it was said that music made singers immortal, now it is technology that does so: between the hologram, or three-dimensional reproduction of a figure, and artificial intelligence, it provides The possibilities of what can be done are endless, for artists for the living as well as for the inanimate.

from tupac to amy winehouse

It was 2012, for example, when the first holo-concert was held: at Coachella, the famous Californian festival, a digital ‘reincarnation’ of Tupac, who had died in 1996, was called to the stage, ever- 100,000 viewers ever before Snoop Dogg. This was also the case with Amy Winehouse’s posthumous tour, which also stopped in Italy: In playback the singer’s voice was superimposed in her ‘virtual’ image, i.e. a hologram, while a band accompanied everything.

, To organize the show, base holograms, the vastness of digital technologies behind most of these types of events. And again: Whitney Houston, Ronnie James Dio, Michael Jackson, Freddie Mercury…

Dalla and Cremonini, Drake and the Weeknd, Oasis

And what about the virtual duet between Cesare Cremonini and Lucio Dalla? A version of “Stella di Mare” recreated by the singer-songwriter, who died in 2012, from the 1979 master. Unthinkable until a few years ago, and now possible thanks to technology. The same can be said about recent Drake and The Weeknd Voice Cloning: heart on my sleeve There’s an AI-powered track, which has now been pulled from almost all streaming platforms because it has been accused of violating copyright laws: The track, in which the alleged singer trades verses about pop star and actress Selena Gomez. who used to hang out with The Weeknd. Some time ago, it was created by @ghostwriter, who said that he “trained” using special software to artistically recreate the voices of musicians.