Seacoast-based Parma Recordings helps bring to life the musical vision of Pete Townshend.

The 100th release from Seacoast label Parma Recordings can trace its origins all the way back to 1971. That’s when Pete Townshend, legendary English guitarist and songwriter for The Who, came up with his vision for the Lifehouse Method. The idea was to create a system of distinct musical portraiture.

“Each participant is both blueprint and inspiration for a unique piece of tailor-made music based upon his or her own specific personal data,” Townshend writes on the inside cover of “Method Music,” the double-disc album composed by Lawrence Ball and released by Parma on Jan. 31.

Originally, Townshend envisioned the concept as part of an elaborate sci-fi rock opera. He wrote a script of “Lifehouse” for Universal Pictures in 1971, but the film was never made. Several songs originally intended for the project wound up on The Who’s 1971 album “Who’s Next,” including the opening track “Baba O’Riley” (mistakenly known to some fans as “Teenage Wasteland”).

“Baba O’Riley” derives its title from two of Townshend’s influences, Indian composer Meher Baba and American composer Terry Riley. It was Townshend’s relationship with the latter that brought him into contact with English composer and mathematician Lawrence Ball, who had grown up listening The Who.

“‘Baba O’Riley’ by The Who had remained for me a fantastic fusion of contrasting influences, particularly as Terry Riley has become a cherished friend, and Pete and I have worked together,” Ball said in an e-mail with The Wire about the project.

In 1998, Riley performed at Ball’s annual Planet Tree Music Festival, which Townshend helped sponsor.

“This drew Pete and myself into communicating about computers, programming, music, consciousness, and the Internet,” Ball said. “After some five years of this dialogue, Pete approached me about helping him with the Lifehouse Method.”

Townshend asked Ball to build him a software engine that would make his vision for musical portraiture a reality. Working with programmer Dave Snowdon, Ball began creating pieces of music as sketches to show how the portraiture system might work. These sketches would become the 11 tracks of “Imaginary Sitters,” the first disc of “Method Music.” Three longer, more expansive pieces Ball composed during the same period comprise the second disc, “Imaginary Galaxies.”

“It started up as an experimental workbench for testing out what the portraiture should sound like, but it felt gradually to be taking on a life of its own,” Ball said. “The album, in a way, is Pete’s way of thanking me for creating the Lifehouse Method with Dave Snowdon.”

The double-album was co-produced by Townshend and local musician Bob Lord, best known on the Seacoast as bassist for rock band Dreadnaught. It was released by Navona Records, an imprint of Parma, which Lord founded in 2008 and now operates out of North Hampton. Working on the album was a special thrill for Lord.

“It would be difficult to imagine a better 100th release for Parma than ‘Method Music,’” he said in an e-mail while he was traveling for Parma. “Lifehouse is a project that I’ve found completely fascinating since I first heard ‘Who’s Next’ when I was a kid.”

The first disc opens with “Meher Baba Piece,” a mesmerizing, computer-generated adaptation of the synthesized opening sequence from “Baba O’Riley.” The song’s rapidly flickering melodic pattern is looped and repeated, with new and faster phrases introduced sporadically throughout its five-minute running time.

The 10 tracks that follow use a similar approach of looped melodic streams that continually evolve with new sonic embellishments. The three tracks on “Imaginary Galaxies” are slower and more ambient, creating a meditative soundscape.

The idea of looping a melody and then applying alterations is not entirely new. A similar tactic has been used by such composers as Steve Reich and Terry Riley, among others. What’s groundbreaking about the Lifehouse Method is the idea that individuals can input personal data into the system to generate customized musical compositions.

In 2007, Townshend used the software created by Ball and Snowdon to launch a website for the Lifehouse Method. Visitors could enter a few facts and information and generate a personally tailored composition. During the years the site was active, visitors created more than 10,000 original pieces of music.

According to Ball, the system requires four primary modes of input: a photograph, a tapped rhythm, a vocal sound and a musical sound. “This acts as a personal interface. It personalizes the connection and initiates a cascade,” he said.

The Lifehouse Method was also used on a couple of songs co-written by Townshend and Ball for The Who’s 2006 album, “Endless Wire.” Now, “Method Music” offers two full hours of auditory experimentation that provide a snapshot of the system.

The album also represents a remarkable milestone for Parma, which had previously worked with such classical artists as Grammy-winning clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, Pulitzer-winning composer Lew Spratlan, and New York Philharmonic Orchestra concertmaster and violinist Glenn Dicterow. Parma is the parent company of four labels: Navona, Big Round Records, Ravello Records and Capstone Records.

Lord’s accomplishments outside Parma include recording six full-length albums with Dreadnaught and serving as music director of The Music Hall’s “Writers on a New England Stage” series, and hosting the Live@The Loft series at The Music Hall Loft. He’s proud of his company’s latest achievement.

“I think ‘Method Music’ works equally well as a strong, robust musical statement and also as a theoretical achievement in compositional technique and thought,” Lord said. “What is happening here, in a musical sense, both conceptually and in execution, is truly singular and unique.”

To listen to samples from “Method Music” or order the album, visit www.parmarecordings.com.