Ball, Lawrence: Method Music (Navona Records Audio CD 2-disc set)  

Lawrence Ball/Pete Townshend
Method Music

Meditative yet propulsive. Structured yet sprawling. Gossamer yet muscular. Inspired yet meticulously
constructed. METHOD MUSIC by Lawrence Ball is all of these and more, a double album of highly
adventurous electronic music by a master innovator of algorithmic composition.

But this album possesses a unique and illustrious lineage that, despite the clear difference in style and genre, connects it to one of the most famous works in the rock music repertoire – the ideas behind METHOD MUSIC are both the outgrowth and the foundation of the legendary LIFEHOUSE project by Pete Townshend, the conceptualizer and co-producer of the album, and presents a theoretical system of musical portraiture in which a listener’s personal data is translated into a unique composition.

Utilizing the conceptual underpinning first implemented in The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” (a track initially part of the original LIFEHOUSE project, and one mirrored on the opening cut of METHOD) along with Ball’s own computerized compositional system called ‘Harmonic Maths,’ Townshend, with Ball and programmer Dave Snowdon, created a website called The Lifehouse Method which turned this theory into reality. While active during 2007-2008, the website offered users the ability to instantaneously create a customized piece of music, and during its run generated over 10,000 unique works based on the users’ own individual characteristics and personal traits.

What you hear on METHOD MUSIC evolved from the tests conducted by Ball and Townshend, which proved the viability of The Lifehouse Method system. Disc One, Imaginary Sitters, features a disparate set of portraits designed to showcase the potential diversity of the Method, while Disc Two, Imaginary Galaxies, expands the forms into larger structures with greater permutations, variables, and variety.