Iannis Xenakis: "Synaphaï" and "Khoai"

Try to imagine this picture made into sound:



Until now I'd thought that the works of Iannis Xenakis I'd heard were a bit too 'intellectual' compared to the beautiful and (relatively) accessible compositions of Gyorgy Ligeti. But yesterday I listened to the big orchestral epic "Synaphaï" on headphones, and I suddenly 'got' it. Listening with headphones, it was like I was surrounded by clouds of strange and beautiful fractal shapes made into sound. An overwhelming experience! It's just incredible that he could make an orchestra sound like that, like the biggest and strangest synthesizer in the world. I'd suggest searching out this work, on "Orchestral Works vol. 3", or other discs in the "Orchestral Works" series. This series has proper 'surround'-like sound engineering, making it suitable for immersive headphone listening. Faar out, man! :-D

No, listening in bad sound quality on Youtube will NOT blow your mind, but here's an excerpt anyway:



As a bonus better suited for Youtube listening, here's a really cool - almost 'evil'-sounding Xenakis composition for hapsichord: