Love them do

HIGH NOTES

Forty years on, the Beatles have managed to stay in the forefront of our musical imaginations. But in a world where it isn't rare to come across re-mastered and re-packaged editions of classic albums, they have managed to stay curiously relevant despite their record company's (Apple) determined and largely successful efforts to protect the band's prestigious catalogue.

Only a handful of compilations of Beatles music has ever been made available. All of which makes the release of their upcoming album Love an even more significant event.

Love could well qualify as a new Beatles album, if there ever was one. Inspired by the late George Harrison's relationship with Guy Laliberté, founder of the world-famous Canadian performing arts troupe Cirque du Soleil, Love is also the name of Cirque's latest production, a musical performance extravaganza that plays to (and pays tribute to) Beatles music. But it's not exactly Beatles music as we have known it all these years. There's something wonderfully different about it this time.

Like so many Beatles stories, it's quite possible that the story of Love will be told and re-told in times to come. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono, asked Beatles producer Sir George Martin to work on the music that would provide the central theme for Love, the production.

But instead of asking him to merely shine and polish existing recordings, their brief was to go completely experimental on the music and develop something new.

And so Sir George with his son Giles Martin, a producer in his own right, began work on the project in 2003, digging into archived Beatles masters and material in the historical Abbey Road studios.

They then embarked on an adventure that saw them re-construct and deconstruct some of the most well-known songs to have come out of the last century.

Their task was presumably a large one, but after three years of experimenting they finally had 26 newly remixed and produced tracks that were intended to mesmerise Beatles fans.

It's actually a remix album. The only difference being that on Love the music of the Beatles is being re-mixed by, well, the Beatles music itself! Sometimes even the same song. It's definitely a bundle of surprises and a fun roller-coaster for anyone who wants to play and identify a song or part of a song. It sounds brilliant.

Earlier, in 2006, Cirque's multi-million dollar production had its premiere at the Mirage in Las Vegas and was set in a specially-constructed theatre that could seat 5,000 people.

The theatre contained numerous panoramic screens, a multi-dimensional stage and a superlative sound system, and combined a strong cast of 60 performers who gave audiences an unforgettable performance, or to put it more correctly, experience.

But it was the release of the album that had everyone worried about negative reactions from critics. When the now-famous producer, Danger Mouse (of Gorillaz & Gnarls Barkley fame) released his controversial but critically acclaimed, album The Grey Album (2004) that combined samples from hip-hop artist's Jay-Z's The Black Album and the Beatles' White Album, EMI Records and other groups lashed out against the travesty of the creative over-indulgence. And though EMI ordered the album to be pulled out from stores, it flourished on the Net, even spurring an electronic civil disobedience movement.

With Love, they will take no chances. Critics are often cynical about tampering with Beatles material, but Sir George Martin being involved allowed for an exception to be made.

Before the album was played to a wide audience, two expert journalists in the UK who have tracked the Beatles' entire career were invited to listen to the album in Abbey Road Studios along with Sir George and Giles. What they heard impressed them tremendously. And the rest will be yet another chapter in Beatles history.