Much is made of the 3-D sculptural quality of Xenakis' music.

This is inarguable — but to these ears, Xenakis' music is important because it dramatically gives form to the throes of civilization in the 20th century and postmodern eras.

A heavy statement indeed, but such are one's feelings, as "Phlegra" (1975) for 11 instruments opened the concert, employing drones which developed into quick moving fanfares and extreme register notes that returned to foreboding, hovering drones. Consequently, images of dark night and flashes of diagonal white light kept springing up in the mind.

Very noteworthy was the extreme detailing in Xenakis' sound textures: at one point I believe it was muted trumpet, muted trombone, and open bell French horn, blended into a soft yet sonorous brass sound which verged upon the exquisite.

Then — and what a shock it was — a large Major chord was struck. It was as if, for a couple of measures or so, a Gospel choir sang their mellow version of reality: but soon we found ourselves back in the chaos and uncertainty, the ambient twitterings and occasional elephantine heavy tones ....

James Harley's piece, "aXis" (2006) for 13 instruments, was both a commissioned composition and a world premiere performance in celebration of Iannis Xenakis and his concepts.

"aXis" began with a mass chord then revealed a front line of five strings playing: two violins, one viola, one cello and one bass, closest to the audience. Behind them played the brass and strings.

As the ensemble sound swelled, the trumpet at one point spoke out from the ensemble, repeating and repeating a Balinese-like scale that, as it got fragmented and spread out, grew into free-floating ribbons of rhythm and sound. The architecture of this composition was clearly spread out.

The last piece, "Jalons" (1986) for 15 instruments, was likely the most conventional composition of the evening: it featured a number of Xennakis' motifs — a sustained note on flute amidst the mass dissonance of our quick lives ... the harp sounding out tonal urgencies and ideas that the ensemble would then play and vary ... and those broad washes of brass exclamation that volleyed out from different sections of the seating arrangement. (But it also must be said, amidst this celebration of a Master musician, that some of the themes and episodes in "Jalons" were experienced as being somewhat plodding. We are all mortals.)

Be that as it may, Robert Aitken's bouncing onto stage on a third encore, wearing a black t-shirt with "CAMP XENAKIS 2006" emblazoned on the front, and "Councillor Bob" on the back, was a fitting closer to the evening's sonic festivities.