Black Marble announces first album in five years, Life in Small Spaces

Life in Small Spaces follows 2021's Fast Idol, with "Jim Carol New Year" arriving as the first taster of the upcoming collection of songs. The track offers a critique of false promises from religion, and rejects the idea of finding easy answers in favour of independent thought. The track arrives alongside a video directed by Clayton Hunt.

Life in Small Spaces sees Stewart analyse the condition of the music industry, discuss authenticity, and speak directly to independent artists. Speaking about the album, which he fully wrote and recorded himself, he explains: “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.”

Life in Small Spaces artwork

Life in Small Spaces tracklist

"It Always Comes to Me"
"Jim Carol New Year"
"Anything"
"Get Back Up"
"Other Man's Dream"
"Guess"
"Life Without"
"Missing History"
"Panopticon Calls"
"Picture When"
"Sonny Boy"