CLUSTER
The Beatles and the Grammy Won in 2025
by Pierluigi Fantozzi
Cluster explores the new senses that cluster around musical currents of the past and present, their aesthetics and practices. Like the dissonant chord from which it takes its name, Cluster will highlight contrasts and chords in the relationship between sound and the communities built around it.
In 1994, Yoko Ono handed Paul McCartney an audio cassette containing some demos by John Lennon dating back to 1977. McCartney, Harrison, and Starr wanted to extract the voice of the singer, who had died in 1980, to release new Beatles material. Among the possible tracks were Free as a Bird and Now and Then. The former was released in 1995, while the latter was discarded due to excessive background noise. In 2022, with the evolution of digital technologies and the advent of AI, it became possible to more effectively separate the audio tracks of the recording. Thus, Lennon’s voice was recovered from the cassette, and Harrison’s guitars were sourced from one of the 1995 recordings. Now and Then finally saw the light in November 2023.
The story ended in the best possible way: just a few days ago, thanks to this track, the Beatles won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance. Incredible, especially considering that the band broke up in 1970.
The awarding of the Grammy sparked some controversy. In fact, the granting of the prize seems to set an important precedent: the music industry, represented by the Grammy jury, not only legitimises but even rewards the interpolation of AI in the content it distributes.
McCartney was keen to highlight that no deepfake was used in Now and Then: Lennon’s voice and Harrison’s guitar come from original recordings. The situation is quite different for the soundtrack of the upcoming film Edith, dedicated to the life of Edith Piaf. In this case, Warner Music Group, with the approval of the singer’s heirs, is working to artificially recreate her voice.
Warner is able to do this because, with the heirs’ consent, there is no theft of intellectual property: the copyright remains intact. In fact, it’s a smart move, as it taps into the nostalgia market and saves the cost of hiring a performer. After all, one might say, who could portray Piaf better than Piaf herself? And Lennon better than Lennon? No crime, then, especially since laws protecting artists (the living ones) remain vague.
The only one who might deserve “arrest” (so to speak) is Peter Jackson, who directed the video for Now and Then—a video in which a resurrected Lennon and Harrison look like they’ve stepped out of a grotesque The Sims animation.
LISTENING SELECTION
Pierluigi Fantozzi
Pierluigi Fantozzi, 1995, is a musician. He graduated from the National Academy of Jazz in Siena and obtained his master’s degree at the Conservatory of Bologna. A clarinet player, he has played in jazz ensembles, but has cultivated an interest in electronic music, also collaborating with Tempo Reale. Since 2023, he has been part of the Controradio team, for which he has conducted interviews with important figures on the international music scene. As a radio speaker, he leads his own programme ‘Passabanda’.
