Black Marble, aka Chris Stewart, announces plans to release Life in Small Spaces (Sacred Bones), his first full-length album since 2021’s Fast Idol, due for release August 21st, 2026, immediately followed by tour dates, listed below.
Black Marble’s Life in Small Spaces is an album of commentary, analysis of the music industry, discussion of authenticity, and a letter to all independent creatives in the world. Drawing on early American left-of-the-dial “college radio” staccato guitar lines (recalling Pylon, The Necessaries, and R. Stevie Moore), and live drum samples (a nod to Wire’s simple metronomic style), the album takes on more of a live sound, trading in Stewart’s usual walls of synths.
According to Stewart: “I always knew a lot of people in music struggled to make ends meet, but it surprised me to learn that the people you thought would be doing well often weren’t. For me, seeing the business from the inside like that changed how I looked at things. When I looked up to see a new artist on a billboard, I started to wonder, will I one day have to pretend to be something I’m not, in order to succeed? The life of an artist goes on after your moment ends, you know? So who do you want to be in the end and how do you want to be seen by the people that know you? I made Life In Small Spaces while thinking about that, and for me, it serves as my own ideal for living an artistic life. I’m doing it as a vocation, not some last-ditch effort to escape to some other world. I made this record not only as a way of saying that, but as a way of saying it’s ok to feel that way. It’s ok for people to sacrifice some degree of creature comfort in order to live a life you believe in. And it doesn’t have to be an endless search for something just out of reach, it can be a permanent way of being and something that sustains you.”
The announcement is accompanied by the lead single “Jim Carol New Year” which comes with a video starring Chris Stewart, directed by Clayton Hunt. “Jim Carol New Year” (its title a nod to both author, poet, and musician Jim Carroll, and holiday season carols) casts another critical eye on life, rejecting false promises of religion, advice from so-called experts, or easy answers in favor of self-validation and independence of thought. While drawing us in with a more rhythmic synth melody, twirling listeners into an illusion of joy, the phrase “I forgot my money” is used over and over to convey all the things the protagonist isn’t buying. “If you want to be free,” Stewart says, “you have to watch out for some of life’s classic pitfalls.”
With regard to the video, Clayton Hunt shares: “Chris had an idea of a house in the distance with two travelers being drawn toward it. We wanted each traveler to represent a different version of the journey. One traveler struggled unprotected against the landscape, the other was cautious, outfitted in an orange hazmat – type suit. I decided to shoot 16mm and capture everything against the green landscape, creating a vibrant contrast. That imagery helped guide the production and inform the story.”
* w/ The Serfs
# w/ Public Circuit
(and Jimmy Cicero for select shows)
Aug 22 Constellation Room at the Observatory Santa Ana, CA *
Aug 23 1720 Los Angeles (LA), CA *
Aug 25 Rickshaw Stop San Francisco, CA *
Aug 26 Harlow’s Sacramento, CA *
Aug 28 The Crocodile Seattle WA *
Aug 29 Wonder Ballroom Portland, OR *
Aug 30 Shrine Social Club Boise, ID *
Aug 31 Urban Lounge Salt Lake City UT *
Sep 1 The Federal Theatre Denver CO #
Sep 3 Slowdown Omaha, NE #
Sep 4 Fine Line Minneapolis, MN #
Sep 5 Thalia Hall Chicago, IL #
Sep 6 El Club Detroit Detroit, MI #
Sep 7 Lee’s Palace Toronto, ON #
Sep 8 La Sala Rosa Montreal QC #
Sep 10 Webster Hall New York (NYC), NY #
Sep 11 Union Transfer Philadelphia, PA #
Sep 12 Ottobar Baltimore, MD #
Sep 14 Kings Raleigh, NC #
Sep 15 The Earl Atlanta GA #
Sep 17 White Oak Music Hall – Upstairs Houston, TX #
Sep 18 Club Dada Dallas TX #
Sep 19 29th Street Ballroom Austin, TX #
Social Media