Mark Neal is a multi instrumentalist and singer and songwriter based in Helensburgh, Scotland. Mark is mainly a guitarist and singer but since starting playing music at the age of 5 he has been picking up and learning new instruments and enjoys the challenge of playing lots of different instruments and styles. Having a keen interest in science and technology (having studied a degree in Physics and a PhD in musical acoustics) Mark has always enjoyed the technical side of music getting heavily involved in live sound engineering and recording music during his university days and ever since. Mark is co-owner of the Edinburgh recording studio ‘The Sonic Lodge’ with fellow musician and producer Phil McBride.

For many years he has been playing and recording with a number of bands mostly in the Scottish Traditional Music genre but this album is the first time he has worked solo.

On the new album, Mark says;

“I have been writing songs for many years and over 2023 I decided to take a bit more time to do more writing and ended up completing this collection of songs. This album started as a solo songwriting project but as it developed it seemed like a nice idea to make the whole album completely solo with me playing all the instruments, producing, recording and mixing. The songs are mostly all based around my acoustic guitar playing but move away from the trad/folk style that has been a feature of most of my recording and performing and pulling in influences from jazz, pop, rock and classical music which I also love. Much of the songwriting has been inspired by nature and many of these songs come from thoughts that have popped into my head when wandering around the land and seascapes in the West of Scotland.”

Available on CD and download from Bandcamp on 5th July 2024

Full album released on all major platforms on 1st November 2024

Digital singles, releasing on all major platforms:

– Set in Stone 5th July 2024

– More Than You Can See 2nd August 2024

– Fire Burns on Water 6th September 2024

– The Lost Forest 4th October 2024

Available now from Bandcamp

Available from all other major digital platforms on November 5th