Modernist composer Iannis Xenakis, tonal conquistador, liberator of sound, led a second, secret life—as an architect. Tom Service, music critic for The Guardian, has a terrif riff online about Xenakis’ early days working in Le Corbusier’s office in Paris in the 1950’s. While there, Xenakis took the lead in designing the Philips Pavilion for Expo ‘58 in Brussels, the ur-model for every multi-media, immersive architectural environment that followed it. Service’s article comes just in time for the Barbicon’s major Corb show opening tomorrow, but it misses one small point of historical interest. It probably wasn’t just professional vanity that drove Corb to take full credit for the pavilion, precipitating a rift between the musician and the architect. As it happened, Corb had a longstanding antipathy towards musicians. He came from a musical family, and his musician brother was always his mother’s favorite. Paging Dr. Freud…

How Iannis Xenakis Turned his Back on Architecture for Classical Music [Guardian]