Following the magnetizing and lulling ‘Chartreuse’, Blue Earth Sound has shared new single ‘Japanese Green’. Both tracks are lifted from his forthcoming EP The St. Louis Sessions, the follow-up to last year’s debut album Cicero Nights, which was one of our Album Picks of 2025, and one we can’t put down. James Weir, the Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and composer behind Blue Earth Sound, recorded the EP in St. Louis, Missouri, with drummer and longtime collaborator Austin LeMoine, and a small group of musicians, including local horn players Jawaad Spaan and Josiah Burton.

‘Japanese Green’ is a cinematic and delicious track partly inspired by 90s R&B and Japanese Jazz. Of the track, Weir shares:

“I wanted this one to feel like a swingin’ cruiser, with strong unified horns. We settled on this A & B structure, with the swing and groove at the start, but added sensitivity at the end with a nice, muted piano lead and delay floating over the top.”

Listen to ‘Japanese Green’ below and grab The St. Louis Sessions EP when it drops on May 19th through DeepMatter Records.

Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and composer James Weir is gearing up to release new material under his Blue Earth Sound moniker, following last year’s debut album Cicero Nights, which was one of our Album Picks of 2025. Entitled The St. Louis Sessions, the forthcoming EP finds Weir building on the jazz-inflected and cinematic sound of his debut, with a more spontaneous approach. The 5-track EP was recorded in St. Louis, Missouri, and is centred around the home studio of drummer and longtime collaborator Austin LeMoine, where a series of informal sessions brought together a small group of musicians, including local horn players Jawaad Spaan and Josiah Burton. Visiting from Chicago with some demos, Weir used the sessions as a space to experiment and develop ideas in real time, with live takes shaping the final recordings and much like with Cicero Nights, placing collaboration at the core of the project. Weir shares:

“Austin was hip to some local brass players, Jawaad Spaan and Josiah Burton, from the St. Louis scene that we invited over for an experimental session tracked in his living room. After bonding over shared taste and drinks, we recorded the horn takes live together over my demos.”

The St. Louis Sessions EP arrives on April 8th through DeepMatter Records, and ahead of it, Blue Earth Sound has shared the magnetizing and lulling lead single ‘Chartreuse’. Take a listen below.

We’ve been eagerly anticipating the release of Cicero Nights, the debut album from  multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and composer James Weir. Releasing under his new moniker Blue Earth Sound, Cicero Nights was recorded at the International Anthem studio space in Chicago with in-house engineer Dave Vettraino, with stellar contributions from drummer Patch Romanowski, Resavoir’s Will Miller on trumpet, flautist Eamonn Pritzy, and longtime collaborator Michael Wells, amongst others.

Following previous singles ‘Mariposa‘ and ‘Lover’s Rock’, and ahead of the album’s release on September 12th through Root Records, Blue Earth Sound slipped in a new preview with ‘On the Court’, a track inspired by the soundtrack to the 1994 basketball documentary ‘Hoop Dreams’. Groovy and irresistibly catchy, ‘On the Court’ taps in to hip hop influences, and you can listen to it below. You’ll be playing it again the second it ends.

Ahead of the release of Cicero Nights, James Weir’s Blue Earth Sound has unleashed a new track, ‘Lover’s Rock’,  following lead single ‘Mariposa‘ released last month. Cicero Nights was recorded at the International Anthem studio space in Chicago with in-house engineer Dave Vettraino, and as we had mentioned, the multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and composer assembled a stellar cast of collaborators including drummer Patch Romanowski, Resavoir’s Will Miller on trumpet, flautist Eamonn Pritzy, and longtime collaborator Michael Wells. Also featuring percussion from guest contributors Cabeza De Chivo’s Alex Aguero and Destroyer’s Joshua Wells, ‘Lover’s Rock’ captures the collaborative energy of the project. With inspiration drawn from the cinematic soul of Isaac Hayes and the vibrant rhythms of Latin America, ‘Lover’s Rock’ is a feel-good, celestial track. Listen to it below and grab the album when it drops on September 12th through Root Records.