The Fateful Symmetry Mark Stewart

• 1 Memory Of You 03:59
• 2 Neon Girl 03:55
• 3 This Is The Rain 04:09
• 4 Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime (Bébe Durmiendo Cumbia Bootleg) 03:51
• 5 Stable Song 03:42
• 6 Twilight's Child 02:35
• 7 Crypto Religion 04:28
• 8 Blank Town 04:31
• 9 A Long Road 04:07
• Total Runtime 35:17

Info for The Fateful Symmetry

The groundbreaking, enduringly influential artist Mark Stewart presents his eighth solo album The Fateful Symmetry, a vital new masterwork completed shortly before his untimely passing in April 2023.

Across an illustrious career of pioneering music with The Pop Group, Mark Stewart & The Maffia and as a solo artist, Stewart has produced a seminal body of work, galvanized by the DIY ideals of punk, radical politics, protest movements, theory, philosophy, technology, art and poetry. With The Fateful Symmetry, Stewart’s abiding legacy as a ‘“revered countercultural musician” (The Guardian) is sustained, with an album as fearless and visionary as his best work.

Testifying to his prolific, unrelenting ingenuity, and signifying one of his most intimate, empowering statements, The Fateful Symmetry is an astonishingly expressive and innovative record; a fierce and beautiful manifesto for a better world. The inimitable, titanic Mark Stewart, never normalized, always extraordinary.

Across his career – from fronting The Pop Group, to his work with the Maffia, to his solo output – Mark Stewart remained a original force, blending radical politics, sonic experimentation, and cultural subversion. Described once by The Guardian as a “revered countercultural musician”, Stewart left a deep imprint on artists across genres.

His influence was acknowledged by peers and admirers alike, with Massive Attack’s Daddy G calling him “my hero”, Nick Cave referring to him as a “fearsome vocalist”, and Geoff Barrow (Portishead) crediting Stewart with shaping the artistic and political landscape of Bristol.

The nine songs weave together elements of post-disco, dub, electronica and avant-pop.

Mark Stewart

Mark Stewart
formed The Pop Group in Bristol in 1977 as a teenager. Influenced by dub and reggae, driven by political conviction and sonic experimentation, the band released their debut album, “Y”, that same year – a defining album of its era.

After The Pop Group disbanded following a final performance at a significant CND rally in 1980, Stewart continued working with CND and, inspired by the emerging hip-hop scene in New York, collaborated with dub pioneer Adrian Sherwood to create the 1983 album “Learning to Cope with Cowardice”.

His solo discography continued with 1985’s “As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade” and spanned the next two decades, culminating with 2012’s “The Politics of Envy”.

In 2010, The Pop Group reformed, driven by renewed political disillusionment, and delivered a series of incendiary live performances, recording two new studio albums. Their last performance with Stewart took place in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral, invited by Terry Hall for Coventry UK City of Culture 2021.

This album contains no booklet.