Felicity Mangan - String Figures (2025)

Felicity Mangan's first solo vinyl LP and first release for Elevator Bath is "String Figures", a stunningly beautiful collection of tactile drones and electronic tonalities infused with natural sounds and rhythms. This is fascinating, emotionally resonant work, novel in its inventiveness and impactful in its delivery.

Created in the summer of 2024, the six pieces on "String Figures" sample and combine the resonant timbres of strings and electromagnetic textural fields with field recordings from wetlands. These elements were shaped through digital processing into polyphonic, angular assemblages.
On side A, the austere minimalism and found sounds of "Watering Device" are followed by the gorgeous drones of "Cello Figures" while "Magnetic Moss" bounces electronic tones and pulses around the stereo field. Side B kicks off with "Invisible Strings", an elegiac ambient piece, which soon leads to the poetic and moving "String Thing". The concluding "Magnet, Paper, Frog" is the perfect combination of sundry techniques, offering a superb example of Mangan's singularity.
As an album, it is a refreshingly varied yet thoroughly cohesive document. Indeed, "String Figures" is this highly unique and exciting composer's most compelling work to date and one that Elevator Bath is overjoyed to share with discerning listeners.

- - - -

Felicity Mangan is an Australian sound artist based in Berlin, Germany. She combines field recordings, electroacoustic composition, and electronic music techniques to create immersive, quasi-bioacoustic music aided by digital audio tools. Her compositions have been presented in multichannel installations, live performances, site-specific settings, and published works on labels such as Longform Editions, Mappa Editions, One Instrument, and Warm Winters, among others.