Black Marble Returns: First Album in Five Years, “Jim Carol New Year” Out Now

Black Marble , aka moody synthpop artist Chris Stewart, has announced his fifth album, Life in Small Spaces , which will be out August 21 via Sacred Bones. It’s his first in five years.

“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,” says Stewart of the themes of this album. “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 first single from the album is “Jim Carol New Year” which comes with a video by Clayton Hunt who says, “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.”

Black Marble’s North American tour starts the day after the album drops and joining on select dates will be Cincinnati’s  The Serfs , NYC’s  Public Circuit  and  Light Pollution ‘s  Jimmy Cicero . The NYC stop on the tour is at Webster Hall on September 10 with Public Circuit and Jimmy Cicero and all dates are listed below.

Life in Small Spaces

1. It Always Comes to Me

2. Jim Carol New Year

3. Anything

4. Get Back Up

5. Other Man’s Dream

6. Guess

7. Life Without

8. Missing History

9. Panopticon Calls

10. Picture When

11. Sonny Boy

BLACK MARBLE – 2026 TOUR DATES

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 #

* w/ The Serfs

# w/ Public Circuit

(and Jimmy Cicero for select shows)

_Originally reported by [Brooklyn Vegan](https://www.brooklynvegan.com/black-marble-announces-first-album-in-5-years-shares-jim-carol-new-year/)._