Black Marble

Life Is Small Places

Label: Sacred Bones

Genre: Electro / Electro-Rock

Availability

LP €25.99

Dispatched within 5-10 working days

Black MarbleLife in Small SpacesBlack Marblehummed to life in the fall of 2012, switched on by the earlyaughts New York City synthwave revival. Today, fourteen years on andseven releases later,Chris Stewartcontinues to make records hunchedover machines that warm to the touch when turned on and need to becoaxed to stay in tune. His albums, written, recorded, and delivered sole-ly by Stewart, remain singular visions, with songs that seek to convey adiffuse pastiche, now shaped by a desire to wrap the whole thing in amessage that speaks to where he’s been and where he wants to go.His latest vision,Life in Small Spaces,sees Stewart comment on the musicindustry and his role within it, reflecting on how underground musichas changed over time, and how a blueprint for keeping things simpleand being true to oneself is the only ideal for living in this complicatedlandscape.Stewart's desire to span time with his ideals intact shows up in the song-writing, which retains the project’s pop-sensibilities while adding newtricks to the bag.Life in Small Spacestrades walls of synths for moreguitar, drawing on early American left of the dial college radio staccatoguitar lines recallingPylon,The Necessaries,andR Stevie Moore,andlive drum samples, a nod toWire’ssimple metronomic style. Stewart ex-plains the reason for the change as a way to “create this chime-y hypnoticquality. Like a radio dial that is between two stations.”Visually,Life in Small Spacesfeatures Stewart alone on the cover in asparse room, surrounded with an eruption of confetti—an image thatreflects a self-contained world that may appear small, bleak and clut-tered, but is fully his own. A fitting frame for a record that embraceslimitation as a form of clarity, and one that tells the story of choosing asimple life, giving up stability and comfort for an existence of bold andengaging connections. This further reflects Black Marble’s confidencein not only his artistry, but the community that has grown and evolvedaround the project over the years. “[Life in Small Spaces]is what I want totalk about as an artist. It's where I am at this exact moment and I knowI'm not alone in how I feel.”This sentiment isn’t a disclaimer. It’s the point.Life in Small Spaces,withits introspective lyricism disguised neatly within Black Marble’s radiantmusicality, is an earnest analysis of the pressures that shape artists. It isan invitation to accept and consciously agree to a more minimal lifestylefor the sake of creative expression and freedom, and to never need tocompromise your values for the tempting illusion of success.
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