SOUND COMBUSTION [MARAKAS] - VASTMANLAND (2025 ALBUM/DIGI-PAK)

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3rd album of quality melodic synth music by major UK synth music talent, this time with seven beautifully composed and produced instrumental tracks!

SOUND COMBUSTION is UK musician Marakas / aka Mark Brougham and when I first heard his debut release ‘Magnetic Island’ I was reminded of the early 90’s magic and raw talent first encountered when listening to a young Andy Pickford with his new, refreshingly exciting melodic synthesizer music!

For this his 3rd Sound Combustion album Brougham has honed his production skills to produce an album that could so easily fit into a Sci-Fi film soundtrack, with the melodic content stripped back just a little in some respects to allow space for more in the way of a mixture of wistful and powerful panoramic soundscaping to take over that all fall somewhere between works of the likes of Schiller, Vangelis and Mark Shreeve.

Seven original compositions filled with subtle melody, gorgeous atmospherics and a certain amount rhythmic dynamics, with a closing track that’s a gorgeous piece of emotion fuelled ambient soundcsaping.

‘Intro – Västeras’ opens the new album with a minute and a half of sombre sounding string synths, before the nearly eight minutes of ‘Solijus’ which immediately strikes up a flowing rhythm that is overlaid by all manner of swishing and swaying atmospheric waves of synth winds. After two minutes the main melody line kicks in and forgers forward for five minutes in a relaxed fashion, sonically building and layering the themes reminding me of the German melodic ambience maestro Schiller in dreamy full flow.

‘Anundshög’ follows with a strong Vangelis / Pickford-like lead melody line set over a backdrop of punching electronic rhythms. As the track progresses, futher higher pitched melodies merge into the main theme adding a sparkle to the sound as the track reaches higher and higher, reaching new highs all the time before petering out into a passage where just tinkling textures are fluttering overhead, pierced by a simple yet effective high-register synth melody line.

A deep pulsating sequencer line brings in ‘Västra Ringvägen’ and soon a new, high-flying synth melody line is soaring regally on high. Again this track is very Schiller like at times, with added sampled effects injecting extra life into the piece.

The title track ‘Västmanland’ is up next and atmospheric shards of synth sound meet up with a sparse wavering voice effect that precedes a thin rhythm that is eventually overlaid by an emotive melody line surrounded by other high-register counter melodies. The piece builds slowly, layer upon layer until it all dies down to just a female fairy-like voice singing deep in a forest.

‘Kvällskörning’ is a slowly evolving cut with a central melody line that delicately drifts along without too much in the way of rhythmic support for the first three minutes, but these filter into the mix for the second half as a relaxed crystalline atmosphere is formed and then slowly drifts off into the ether on a backdrop of solar winds.

‘Norrsken’ closes the album, initially with an intoxicating dream-like piano melody-line that is joined by a warm, equally relaxed synth textures creating a warm breeze and forest like sound-effects that seem to all wrap themselves around you as you take all the sounds into your head. The piano is never too far off as the warm winds of synth ethereal textures filter a gather over the soundstage to eventually leave you alone with just your own thoughts as they all drift off into the ether.

‘Västmanland’ is another very accomplished album from SOUND COMBUSTION and sure to increase the popularity of this growing new synthesizer music talent.

The disc is a Factory Produced High Quality CD-R with Full-Colour On-Body CD Label Print and it is packaged in a 4-Panel Digi-Pak.

‘Västmanland’ was released on 18th April 2025 … but slipped through the e-mail promotion net at the time!

Also available by SOUND COMBUSTION …
EYE OF THE STORM (2021 Album / Digi-Pak) CDR – Stock # 2205588
MAGNETIC ISLAND (2020 Album / Digi-Pak) CDR – Stock # 2205047

SOUND COMBUSTION: VÄSTMANLAND Track List:

01. Intro – Västeras (1:36)
02. Solijus (7:49)
03. Anundshög (8:02)
04. Västra Ringvägen (7:22)
05. Västmanland (7:30)
06. Kvällskörning (6:47)
07. Norrsken (6:23)

TPT – 44:32