(Gibson) Shortly after The Who conceived, produced and recorded their rock opera Tommy, Pete Townshend started work on a follow-up "sci-fi rock opera." Parts of Townshend's Lifehouse project have occasionally seen the light of day, but he has now produced a new twist on the tale. London-based composer and mathematician Lawrence Ball's forthcoming double CD-set Method Music was not only produced by Townshend, it was also the direct outcome of Townshend's ongoing Lifehouse project.Ball says: "Method Music evolved from Pete Townshend's question to me about generating unique pieces of music from the input of personal characteristics as data, a question related closely to his ongoing project Lifehouse. I wanted to see what the music could sound like prior to designing the proposed system of portraiture, and I created the tracks on Disc One: Imaginary Sitters, as a touchstone towards designing the software which would eventually execute the task itself."
Townshend's original Lifehouse story was set in a futuristic world where rock 'n' roll no longer exists – but a secret concert is staged where audience members enter their personal characteristics into a computer grid. A unique piece of music – based on the audience member's personal data – would then be generated. more on this story
