Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis (born 1922 in Braïla, Romania - died in 2001 in Paris, France) was a Greek Resistance fighter in World War II. He fled to France as a political refugee in 1947. Having obtained an engineering degree from the Athens Polytechnic Institute, he collaborated with Le Corbusier in Paris from 1947–1959. From 1950–1953, while working with the renowned architect, he studied composition at the Paris Conservatory under Olivier Messiaen. Xenakis’s collaboration with Le Corbusier as an engineer and architect yielded innovative projects such as the Couvent de La Tourette (1955) and the Philips Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair (1958).

Mycenes Alpha demonstrates the fundamental role of drawing in the work of Xenakis who brings together architecture, sound and advanced contemporary mathematics, moving away from traditional polyphony to create music comprised of masses of sound, shifting abstract aural gestures, linear permutation, and sonic pointillism.Mycenes Alpha demonstrates the kinetic energy and palpable qualities of his work, providing a singular insight into this extraordinary musical innovator’s process of “thinking through the hand”.

Xenakis was the founder and Director of the Center for Studies of Mathematical and Automated Music (CEMAMu) in Paris; Associate Professor, Electronic Music and founder and Director, Center for Mathematical and Automated Music (CMAM) at Indiana University in Bloomington (1967–72); and Professor at the University of Paris (1972–89). Iannis Xenakis was awarded the Kyoto Prize in 1997, considered the Nobel Prize of Music.