Einstein’s Dreams

The brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Eric Heveron-Smith, Einstein’s Dreams blends chamber folk textures with transcendent jazz 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 transcendence, acting as a launch pad for flocks of woodwinds, stacks of brass, and entire landscapes full of stringed instruments. Alongside Heveron-Smith and his usual live collaborators are special guests like hammered dulcimer player Max ZT (House of Waters), and conga player Tony Padilla (Mambo Kings), bringing worldwide flavors to this batch of songs and instrumentals.

“It’s OK to Fall” is an ambitious, self-contained indie pop song that uses several popular chamber-folk tells — Andrew Bird’s plucked-string sound and the breezy folk-pop aesthetic of the Scandinavian duo Kings of Convenience during the pre-chorus and chorus, and the easy, conversational vocal tone of José González throughout.

But Heveron-Smith has a mind of his own. “It’s OK to Fall” is a brisk listen. It seems to end just as the listener begins to settle into its tightly woven, if busy instrumentation that includes the whimsical use of a glockenspiel and hammered dulcimer. That kind of a tease is the sign of a cleverly crafted song: Keep ’em wanting more.

And while “It’s OK to Fall” has all the necessary brevity of a pop song, the dulcimer — played with both precision and sensitivity by Max ZT — is what gives the song the gravitas of traditional folk music without sacrificing Heveron-Smith’s quirky approach to songwriting.

The term multi-instrumentalist gets thrown around a lot these days, but Heveron-Smith earns it here. He plays both the trombone and tuba in addition to singing, strumming the guitar and ukulele, thumping the upright bass, and chiming in on the aforementioned glockenspiel. Despite the full-band sound, drummer Dave Tedeschi, of Postmodern Jukebox, is the only other musician besides Heveron-Smith and Max ZT, who fronts the trio House of Waters. Heveron-Smith also recorded, mixed, and mastered the song.

-City Paper, 1/18/23
https://www.roccitynews.com/music/einsteins-dreams-soars-on-single-its-ok-to-fall-music-review-15636002