We love Blue Earth Sound, the project of Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and composer James Weir, and we’re very excited to hear he has a new album on the way. We first fell for the project with Cicero Nights, Weir’s 2025 debut which was one of our Album Picks of the year. After years spent making music with Chicago post-punk band NE-HI and synth-driven group Spun Out, Weir took things in a very different direction, building a jazz-inflected and cinematic sound around his love of improvisation. He followed the album earlier this year with The St. Louis Sessions EP, pushing his sound into a more spontaneous territory.

Entitled Everything to Remember, the new record sees him continuing to weave together jazz, soul, improvisation and cinematic music. Across ten instrumental compositions, Weir continues to explore music as a way of holding onto places, memories and feelings that are difficult to put into words. Everything to Remember brings together his longtime collaborators including drummer Patch Romanowski, Resavoir trumpeter Will Miller, flautist and saxophonist Eamonn Prizy and International Anthem engineer Dave Vettraino. The album was recorded over multiple sessions in Chicago, with demos also developed at Romanowski’s family cabin in Rome, Wisconsin, where Weir and his collaborators spent time working in a more secluded setting. Weir comments:

“We started recording in November of 2025 over multiple sessions with Dave at his new studio on the deep south side of Chicago. Trips to Patch’s family cabin in Rome, Wisconsin were done to get demos recorded and fleshed out in a rural, secluded, inspired space while listening to Pink Floyd B-sides, New Age music, Mizell Brothers productions, Marvin Gaye and The Smiths.”

Everything to Remember is slated for a November 20th release through DeepMatter Records. It seems like a long while away but luckily we can already hear the beautiful, soulful and nostalgic ‘Limiter’, an exhilarating introduction to what’s coming. Speaking about the track, Weir says:

“This one was really written by the live band core of me, Martin Diaz, Patch Romanowski, Eamonn Priz and Michaels Wells. Had an absolute blast recording the psychedelic harmonica stems, inspired by Ludwig Goransson’s productions, and the Durutti column echo on the guitar in post-production, with moody Talk Talk space in the interlude. Gotta keep ‘em guessing.”

We can’t wait to hear the rest. Now listen to ‘Limiter’ below.

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.