[Cover photo credit to Jared Gentile]

Chicago-based “Samba-Soul” artist Jontan has announced his second album, The Yellow House, along with the release of the lead single “Amélie.” Jontan will be self-releasing The Yellow House on February 6, 2026.

Jontan is the solo songwriting outlet of musician, music educator, and engineer Jonathan Gardner, whose music is inspired by his time studying in Brazil as well as 60s and 70s classic Pop-Rock.

After Jontan released the debut album, The Orange Book, about two years ago, he has honed his skills as a Producer and engineer since then.The Yellow House is a reflection of Jontan’s songwriting and audio engineering, all of which he did at home. Afterwards, he enlisted John Trainum for mixing (Kate Bollinger) and Danny Kalb for mastering (Beck, Steve Lacy).

Gardner said of the single:

[It] expresses unconditional love for someone close to me. I put a magnifying glass to my devotion, zooming in so far I couldn’t see all that could come between us. I was much more comfortable writing bittersweet love songs, and I challenged myself to break that habit and write a truly positive song.

Several songwriters I’ve admired have stated that they write only positive songs and the idea alone was enough to inspire me. So I wrote a love song characterized by such conviction as I had never expressed. This exercise allowed me to bask in my own feelings of affection, and writing ‘Amélie’ allowed me to visualize my ideal relationship. Not only expressing present feelings, it also voiced the devotion that I aspired to feel for a lover.

While Jontan remains a DIY artist, he also welcomed several guest musicians on his next album, including Chicago-based bedroom Pop artist and Jazz musician Walker, percussionist Jean-Christophe Leroy (Lalo Schifrin, Chucho Valdés), and keyboardist Josh Greenberger (Noname).