''Method Music'' is a double-album of electronic music by the English composer and mathematician

Lawrence Ball Lawrence Ball (born 17 September 1951) is an English musician and composer who lives in North London. He produces multi-media compositions, performs in concert, and also works as a private tutor in mathematics, music theory and physics. Musica ...

created using the compositional system that would become The Lifehouse Method, an online-based compositional project conceived by

Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is the co-founder, guitarist, keyboardist, second lead vocalist, principal songwriter and leader of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s an ...

The Who The Who are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup (1964–1978) consisted of lead vocalist Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. Considered one of th ...

to compose customized algorithmically-generated musical portraits. The album's music evolved from tests of the portraiture system. The release was produced by

and Bob Lord and was released on 31 January 2012 on Navona Records.

History

''Method Music'' is an outgrowth of Townshend's groundbreaking 1971 futurist composition '' Lifehouse''. Although Townshend originally intended ''Lifehouse'' as a multimedia audience-participation musical production to follow The Who's ''

Tommy Tommy may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tommy (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army * Tommy Giacomelli (born 1974), Brazilian fo ...

'', difficulties in implementing the project led to its temporary abandonment; a selection of constituent components extracted from ''Lifehouse'' were recorded and assembled as The Who's highly successful album ''

Who's Next ''Who's Next'' is the fifth studio album by the English rock band the Who, released on 2 August 1971, by Track Records in the United Kingdom and by Decca Records in the United States. It developed from the aborted '' Lifehouse'' project, a m ...

''. The element of audience participation was a key plot point of the ''Lifehouse'' narrative, which culminates in a concert where the audience's personal attributes and characteristics are transformed into music. The idea of a musical portraiture system was first explored by Townshend in the lead-off cut on ''Who's Next'', ''

Baba O'Riley "Baba O'Riley" is a song by the English Rock music, rock band the Who, written by guitarist and principal songwriter Pete Townshend. It is the opening track to the Who's fifth studio album, ''Who's Next'' (1971). In Europe, it was released as a ...

'' - a piece echoed in ''Meher Baba Piece'', the first track on ''Method Music'' (which was included on The Who's 2006 album '' Endless Wire'' as the underpinning for ''Fragments'', co-written by Ball). In 2007, Townshend launched ''The Lifehouse Method'' website, run by his company Eel Pie, an online music portraiture system created with Ball and programmer Dave Snowdon in which users entered data into the system and received a unique, customized piece of audio. The website generated over 10,000 musical portraits before closing in 2008. ''Method Music'' was recorded and mixed at Townshend's Oceanic Studios in Twickenham.

Track listing

;Disc One #"Meher Baba Piece" #"Sitter 09" #"Sitter 10" #"Victoria 5" #"Sitter 11" #"Sitter 12" #"Sitter 13" #"Sitter 14" #"Sitter 15" #"Sitter 17" #"Sitter 16" ;Disc Two #"Galaxy 01 (for the late

Syd Barrett Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English singer, guitarist and songwriter who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Until his departure in 1968, he was Pink Floyd's frontman and primary songwriter, ...

)" #"Galaxy 02 (for the late

Hugh Hopper Hugh Colin Hopper (29 April 1945 – 7 June 2009) was a British progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and other bands. Biography Early career Starting i ...

)" #"Galaxy 03 (for the late

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde music, avant-garde composers in the latter half of the ...

References

External links

Navona Records official site

Official METHOD MUSIC page on Navona Records

Lawrence Ball official site

Pete Townshend official site

Bob Lord official site

Lifehouse Method official site
{{Authority control 2012 albums