Liam Cagney

The genius of Iannis Xenakis

Of all the post-war European firebrands, the Greek composer's viscerally wild music remains the most influential today

Greek composer Iannis Xenakis records bulls breathing for his composition 'Tauriphanie' in the Camargue. Photo: Pierre Perrin / Sygma / Getty Images 
issue 05 March 2022

This year is the centenary of the birth of Iannis Xenakis, the Greek composer-architect who called himself an ancient Greek stuck in the contemporary world. His instrumental music at times suggests an alien species trying to communicate with us through our musical instruments, his electronic music a distressed animal on the receiving end of amateur dentistry.

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