Black Marble has announced Life in Small Spaces, a new 11-track album due August 21. The first song available from the pre-order is "Jim Carol New Year," which is streaming now through the project's Bandcamp page.
The page frames Life in Small Spaces as the latest chapter for Chris Stewart's synth-pop project, one that keeps the handmade-machine glow but shifts some of the architecture toward guitar and live drum samples. That is a subtle but meaningful tweak for a project whose best songs have always sounded like neon trying to survive in bad weather.
According to the Bandcamp notes, Stewart wrote, recorded, and delivered the album himself. The source text says the record reflects on underground music, the pressure around creative work, and the appeal of keeping things small enough to stay honest.
The track list runs from opener "It Always Comes to Me" through "Sonny Boy," with "Jim Carol New Year" sitting second and currently unlocked ahead of release. It is a clean, very Black Marble setup: a compact room, a blinking machine, and just enough motion to make the melancholy feel awake.