Lawrence Ball‘s double CD Method Music is a new collection of generative music that’s inspired by ideas Pete Townshend has explored over the last 40 years, with his Lifehouse project.
Townshend’s Lifehouse had its origin in a sci-fi rock opera, written as a follow up to Tommy. One of the key ideas of the project was that the music would be customized to the characteristics of individual listeners. This was an underlying concept of The Who’s Baba O’Riley.
The original music Townshend wrote for Lifehouse was eventually released on Who’s Next and other albums. But Townshend has remained interested in the idea of music based tailored to listeners.
The tracks on Lawrence Ball’s Method Music represent a modern interpretation of these ideas. Ball implemented Townshend’s ideas using a computerized compositional system called he calls Harmonic Maths.
The Who’s Pete Townshend, with the help of mathematician and composer Lawrence Ball and software engineer David Snowdon, has created a computer system called