Potluck founder John Harrison, aka the prolific Jphono1, has a new album of jazzy, gentle folk-rock on the horizon: Parliament, due out March 1.

It’s his third album to be released since COVID-19 remade the worldโ€”his last album, You Are Here to Be Around, was released just last Novemberโ€”but the first, he says, to be entirely conceptualized and recorded during the pandemic.ย 

Ahead of the release, Harrison is premiering album opener “Fade the Scene” with the INDY, with a video single that mirrors the soothing, slippery psychedelics of the song, as Harrison croons โ€œFind a way to remember to breathe /ย Take a seat, Lay back / Fade the Scene, gone, Iโ€™m gone” against trailing guitar lines and lush,ย reverberatory electronics.ย 

“One could at first interpret those words as having to do with being under the influence of something psychoactive,” Harrison writes in the song notes.ย “But it can also be read as a way to practice opposite action and mindfulness in order to calm anxiety, which is something a lot of us are feeling these days.”

Jphono1 makes meditativeย musicโ€”the kind that you close your eyes to, and trust to let it sweep you awayโ€”andย if “Fade the Scene” is any indication, Parliament will carry that looping, lilting trust forward.ย 

YouTube video

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Sarah Edwards is culture editor of the INDY, covering cultural institutions and the arts in the Triangle. She joined the staff in 2019 and assumed her current role in 2020.