Although John Tavener became a church organist at age 17 and kept the job for fourteen years, "Mandelion" was his only major piece of organ music, at least until the age of 50. It is actually a transformed orchestra piece that did not work in that form. One day he took it in to a church and tried it on the organ there and realized that it was actually a piece of organ music.

The title means "the ikon not made by hands"; in other words, the imprint of Christ's face on a piece of cloth. Tavener described the piece as "a meditation upon ikons, and upon the changing and distorting images of the face of Christ.

In form it seems to be a traditional Russian chant doing battle with serial music interjections. Later, Tavener came to regard the piece as transitional, with a lack of clarity.

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