About

Felicity Mangan is an Australian sound artist, composer and educator based in Berlin, Germany since 2008. Felicity plays with the timbres and biorhythmic patterns of her field recording archive to create quasi-bioacoustic music. Felicity has played in collaborative projects Native Instrument (Shelter Press, Entr’acte) presenting electro-acoustic bug beats with vocalist Stine Janvin. Felicity has released solo publications on Longform Editions titled Stereo’frog’ic, a play on the word stereophonic –  presenting a sound piece, crafted from found recordings of frogs, insects and other ‘vocal’ animals wavering about in a stereo field. More recently a tape release titled Creepy Crawly on Slovakian label Mappa Editions and  Bell Metal Reeds (One Instrument). Felicity has presented projects in many different settings from galleries, gardens, clubs, festivals and online platforms throughout Europe, including National Gallery Denmark, Technosphärenklänge CTM/HKW, Sonic Acts Academy, RIVERSSSOUNDS.org and recently sound design for 100 Climate Conversations , Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia. 

Releases

Somewhere between the buzzing Cyborg bugs and the whistling of extinct birds. Welcome to the hybrid zoo built on the ruins of the biotic crisis. You can explore the chirping, singing and trilling of birds and insects, which you know from pictures of cryptozoological encyclopedias or go straight to synthetic ornithology, where you can listen to mutated biorhythms. Everyone knows Mockingjay call, but who heard the voice of the Double-headed emu or the rustle of invisible community living in the crown of the Muku tree? (Mappa, July 2020)

Stereo’frog’ic is a play of the word stereophonic – to play with the illusion of multi-direction audible perspective – in this case presenting a quasi-bioacoustic sound piece, crafted from found recordings of frogs, insects, a recording of an animal scattering in the bushes and other ‘vocal’ animals wavering about in the stereo field. (Longform Editions, March 2019)

*Also presented as Quadra’frog’ic in a quasi-quadraphonic performance installation setup, with a stereo sound system and piezo transducer speakers attached to found objects.

Review in A Closer Listen

Bell Metal Reeds (One Instrument) – Nov 4th, 2021

For the release on One Instrument the mouth organ is her instrument of choice. Felicity explores the resonance and pitch of the reeds within at the harmonica The Echo Harp of the brand M. Hohner.
“Bell Metal Reeds” shows a committed and ambitious composition in each singular tone. The striking attention to detail and commitment to investigating tonal possibility characterizes throughout the whole body of work.

As an amateur player, through breath and minimal electronic music composition techniques she composed four beautiful organic ambient pieces within the parameters of the One Instrument concept.
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Composed and produced by Felicity Mangan
Mastered by Luca Sammartin
Original artwork and layout by Marco Ciceri