Einstein's Dreams: Flight Manifest, album release show
With chamber orchestra and special guests, including Benny Bleu and Tony Padilla
Eric Heveron-Smith (lead vocals, bass, guitar)
Wade McClung (electric guitar, vocals)
Noah DeRosier (acoustic guitar, keyboard, vocals)
Chris Palace (drums)
Julia Weatherholtz (vocals)
The brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Eric Heveron-Smith, Einstein’s Dreams blends chamber folk textures with jazz-infused improvisation. Weaving Alan Watts references into stories about migratory birds, Heveron-Smith’s voice soars as he alternates between soulful bass lines and shimmery, fingerpicked chords on his six string bass.
In 2025, Einstein’s Dreams will be releasing their debut album Flight Manifest (funded in part by a grant from the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts). The album plays with themes of space travel, birds, and evolution, acting as a launch pad for flocks of woodwinds, stacks of brass, and entire landscapes full of stringed instruments. Eric’s own multi-instrumental tendencies are augmented by special guests including Benny Bleu on banjo, Tony Padilla (Mambo Kings) on congas, and hammered dulcimer player Max ZT (House of Waters, a jazz fusion group on Snarky Puppy’s groundUP label).
With a career that ranges from opening for BB King and Tower of power, to recording live broadcasts of Earth, Wind & Fire and the Newport Jazz Festival, to playing trombone and bass with the genre bending YouTube supergroup Postmodern Jukebox, to one beautiful show with pop legend Michael McDonald, Eric has been some places (quite literally, touring 45 states, 6 Canadian provinces, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean).
Finding his voice as a songwriter took a little more exploration, but some lessons with the jazz/folk singer-songwriter Becca Stevens helped him channel his awe and wonder at the natural world into the richly layered sonic textures that had been living in his head since he first heard Sufjan Stevens in music school. Einstein’s Dreams (named after the poetic science fiction book by Alan Lightman) debuted in 2021, with a handful of originals, some live looping electric bass, and covers of Bruce Hornsby and Peter Gabriel. Since then, the band has transformed from a pickup group of gigging jazz musicians to an ensemble that blends myriad influences with soaring vocal harmonies.
The live experience is elevated by the occasional inclusion of a 6-piece chamber orchestra (modeled after the group yMusic, recent collaborators of Paul Simon). On their album release concert, the orchestra will be joined by the RPO’s own Herb Smith on trumpet and flugelhorn, alongside Jess Breen (flute), Dean Keller (bass clarinet), Esther Rogers (cello), Sean Mulligan (viola), and Carolyn Cronauer (violin).
Stereo Field Recordings and Bop Shop Records are thrilled to host and record this epic event!
About Stereo Field Recordings
Stereo Field Recordings was founded in 2024 by audio and video engineer Dan Gross to consolidate his recording business. The mission of SFR is to offer capture services at affordable rates, made through community connections. At SFR's home base at Bop Shop Records and in the field, SFR looks to produce, capture, and release unique music recordings: from EPKs, to field recordings, to concert videos, to live EPs and albums, to semi-studio projects.
8pm show, doors at 7pm
$20 advance/$25 day of the show
Tickets available online and at the door