Exclusive: A classic John Lennon and Yoko Ono track gets a mesmerising music video made from never-before-seen home movies

It can’t be said enough how influential the work of John Lennon and Yoko Ono is. One was a part of the most significant rock band ever, the other was an avant-garde extraordinaire – in other words, Lennon represented a seismic shift in pop culture whereas Yoko represented an undeniable influence in the alternative, underground arts. It always made sense why the two cosied up and became one of the most iconic couples of all time. You can’t really escape Lennon-Ono-adjacent imagery, it’s everywhere, which is why the new music video for John’s classic Plastic Ono Band track Love is so surprising – it’s literally made out of never-before-seen footage of the couple sharing precious moments together. It’s Nice That spoke to Simon Hilton, the vice president of the John Lennon estate and creator of the music video, about this lovely landmark moment for fans.

The music video is a part of Meditation Mixes, a collaboration with Lumenate, a meditation app that Simon describes as “legal digital drugs” – it helps you to explore “deeper states of consciousness guided by the intensity and frequency of precise flickering light sequences on your closed eyelids”. Going into somewhere deep within is a familiar experience to Lennon-Ono fans, so the nine initial Meditation Mixes went down very well. When it came around to Record Store Day again this year, the team continued collaborating with Sean Ono Lennon and picked the sobering, gorgeous track Love. If you thought that the song was good enough as it is, this revised edition features original instrumental additions and a revamped mix. It’s especially designed to allow an organic mind-trip to occur, with Simon commenting: “The hope for the album is that people will enjoy listening to the mixes and relaxing with them in whatever way suits them. They are not meant to replace the originals in any way, they are very much derivative works – grandchildren, if you like.”

Initially, the team tried different styles for the video, using graphic and visual representatives of musical waveforms, but ultimately what felt the most authentic to the song was to visually show the love John and Yoko felt for one another. “There were a couple of reels of old Super 8 film from when they first moved into Tittenhurst Park in Ascot and from a holiday in Spetses Island in Greece, both in late 1969,” says Simon. “It was footage filmed and directed by John and Yoko, with John filming Yoko, and Yoko filming John, really relaxed and happy and intimate with one another – Yoko's smile is particularly beautiful and unguarded – and when we put the footage to the music, it was the most perfect fit.”

The video is gorgeous, as is nearly anything shot on Super 8 film. The particular, otherworldly glows in some very old film stocks are preserved here, the glow of love itself, if you will. The heavy film grain, paired with the low shutter speed, recreates the visuals of a long-gone memory – not quite smooth, not recollected in its entirety, but remembered in its most important moments: a smile, sunlight glittering through hair, cerulean waves crashing up against the boat. It feels like a tribute to Yoko, especially as the kanji letters of ‘Yōko’ mean ‘ocean child’. It’s a rarity that fans of the famous duo see brand new footage, even when it’s as fleeting as these remastered home movies. Sometimes, it’s stuff like this, rather than the huge productions, that mean the most.

Pick up Love (Meditation Mix) on vinyl exclusively on Record Store Day, Saturday 18 April.