Gabriel Teodros's Blog

It's been a busy summer... from community shows at Youngstown, Hidmo & The Vera Project, to a nearly sold-out (on a Monday night?) Triple Door concert with Meklit Hadero... to huge festivals like Capitol Hill Block Party & Bumbershoot... Air 2 A Bird took flight these last few months.

If you haven't had a chance to check our debut album, Crow Hill, it's now available on iTunes, most digital outlets, and in Seattle of course at Hidmo Eritrean Cuisine, The Station (on Beacon Hill), Everyday Music, Sonic Boom, and Easy Street Records. Peace to KEXP, KBCS & KPFA (in the Bay) for the radio support. We're doing this with no budget, no label... it's just air. Appreciate every single breath of support underneath our wings... It's nothing without you.

"Air 2 A Bird is the latest brainchild of local MC/poet/activist/teacher Gabriel Teodros and his frequent collaborator, the very talented MC/singer/producer Amos Miller (whose own 2001 LP Amelation was a slept-on chunk of his conscious, home-baked cobbler). A2AB's sound is made of deep, emotive funk beats laced throughout with Miller's pulsing keyboard and prerecorded bird noises. If that sounds at all one-note to you, you'll be surprised by the immediate, soulful, and heartbreakingly sincere hiphop the two make (with the help of some gorgeous guest vocals) and the soaring perspective they bring to the scene. Flyer than most. "

- Larry Mizell, Jr., The Stranger

"Just 72 short hours after leaving the country for a three-month tour reaching Europe, the Middle East and Africa, local rapper Gabriel Teodros found himself back in New York City after being denied entrance to London's Heathrow Airport. The tour had to be cancelled, but not all was lost: 14 days in an NYC studio with Lovework collaborator Amos Miller resulted in a new 12-track record.

True to the name of the album and the group, each track samples the outbursts of a different bird ranging from the crow to more pleasant songbirds. But just as much as those songbirds, even the crows match their track's specific mood in a very impressive way. Less obvious are the electronic quirks laced throughout the record--no doubt either a benefit or consequence, depending on your angle, of the album's production tools being limited to GarageBand. But what makes the record more than just unique are the artists' trademark political poetics--at their sharpest, too--that prove great music can come from ruffled feathers."

 - Nick Feldman, Seattle Weekly

So, in the Fall of last year, when the would-be world-touring emcee found himself detained in London’s Heathrow airport and eventually deported out of England and back to the States (specifically, New York City) there was a particular irony attached to the situation. The story was well-documented on local blogs and music outlets. Read GT’s own account here. 

All’s well that ends well, however. That “space between” turned out to be 14 days in a Brooklyn recording studio, cooped up with creative and touring partner Amos Miller. The two literally found themselves grounded, and with nothing but spare time, some bare-bones recording equipment and a little aviary inspiration, the musicians were still able to migrate, not physically, but creatively. The duo (re-borne as Air 2 A Bird) created the soaring LP, Crow Hill.

Preview the title track below and then click over to the group’s Bandcamp space for the rest. For an album that was birthed by an unwanted detainment, it sounds suspiciously like freedom."