Pete Townshend: To the Lifehouse

Here's something:

Pete Townshend's decades-old vision of creating musical portraits through technology has come to fruition. The Who guitarist today unveiled his music creation, now dubbed the Lifehouse Method, to a small gathering of journalists in London. The Method is an Internet-based software program that enables the user -- or "sitter" -- to generate music from unique, inputted data. The sitter can upload four strands of personal information into the system, consisting of a digital photo, a rhythm, a sound and a voice.

...Townhend explained that the project was the culmination of an idea which had percolated since his art school days in the 1960s. The concept was first introduced in the early 1970s via music intended for the Townshend-penned "Lifehouse" song cycle and planned concept album, which eventually morphed into the Who's "Who's Next" album. Music composed through the Method's technology formed the basis of the track "Fragments" on the most recent Who album, "Endless Wire." Today's launch, Townshend noted, was an attempt "in essence, [to] close the book on the great lost project of Lifehouse, as a Who legendary non-event."

Advanced artists usually talk about their projects in grandiose terms. But talking like that about projects that never happened is pretty impressive.