The Beatles have opened an immersive listening exhibition based on their classic album ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ — which promises to be as close as you can get to experiencing the album being played live.
The event at Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool has been designed by The Beatles’ firm Apple Corps in association with Tate Liverpool, Dolby Laboratories and National Museums Liverpool.
It’s based on the new mix of the album released in 2017 by Giles Martin, son of Sir George Martin, who produced the original ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ album in 1967.
A statement of the presentation of the album in Dolby Atmos sound said: “This is an immersive sound environment which feels as if the band is performing live in the space. It will transport listeners to Abbey Road this Christmas.” Free tickets for the experience are sold out, but further similar events are planned for 2020.
Tate Liverpool director Helen Legg said: “We’re excited to bring this unique experience to the city. Listening to this special mix is like hearing something familiar for the first time. It sounds so fresh, you can hear every element, which just underscored how wildly inventive the album was.”
Giles Martin added: “‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ is one of the most important and ground-breaking albums of all time. In many ways, it changed how records could be made. The Beatles stopped just simply making music and started painting pictures with sounds that hadn’t been heard before. Experiencing this Dolby Atmos mix allows us to fll into the record, and to totally immerse ourselves in the fantastical world that was so beautifully created at Abbey Road Studios over 50 years ago.”
Since the new mix of ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ was released, Martin has carried out similar new mixes of The Beatles’ albums ‘The Beatles’ and ‘Abbey Road’. It’s thought a new version of ‘Let It Be’, the last Beatles album to be released, will be out next year to mark its 50th anniversary.