You have to listen really hard to this to get the most out of it. There's no point just letting it wash over you, because it's never very pretty, just occasionally overwhelming.
From what I remember seeing in TV features about Xenakis, however, the scores he produces are quite beautiful.
He was trained as an architect, and has a deep appreciation of the mathematics of modelling nature, including how order and swarming emerge out of randomness. On paper you can see the notes swirling and swooping like flocks of starlings. (I can't find any really great examples on the web, but these should give you an idea.)
The ear has more difficulty recognising these movements and patterns, which is why you have to pay such close attention.
Steve Reich's music is also concerned with process and formal quasi-mathematical structures, but seems to be more 'human scale' (which may be related to the fact that it's an easier listen). Xenakis, as the title of this album suggests, seems to be working at a more astronomical scale. In this he shares some of the same broad sweep as his fellow Greek, Vangelis.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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