Recorded by Ryan Blessey at Roverhead Studios
Mixed by Ryan and Mark Ospovatt at Emandee Studios
Painting APOLE
Mastered by Jeff Lipton at Peerless Mastering
Desigh by Andy Kman

I met Matt in a green room somewhere in Manhattan. I was in awe of his hair. We immediately hit it off. A few hours later we were arguing over who was a bigger Morton Feldman fan. He of course won when he pulled a photo of Feldman out of his wallet. I didn’t even have a wallet. A few years later we recorded this in a basement in Connecticut. -CC July 22, 2009

March 17, 2008
Exclaim By Chris Whibbs
The combination of alto saxophone and guitar might seem a little simple at first but in the hands of these two experienced improvisers, there is much to pore over and absorb. The reason for that is the amount of space given to the music in this collaboration. Welch (on alto sax) and Colorusso (on guitar) are no strangers to modern compositions but they don’t rush anything. Every sax note is left to waft through the air, pushing the fragile nature of the music to the forefront. And, just like Welch’s sax, Colorusso doesn’t showcase any guitar pyrotechnics, as it’s mostly comprised of simple notes being repeated, but it is the combination of the two that transforms the music. Split into two parts, the first one plays with the sax’s atonality and note mutation a bit more, but its pace is still unrushed and languid. The better second half cracks open the collaboration and the instruments are left to hang and bloom in a gorgeously carefree way. Inspiring in its simplicity, though by no means simple, this is deceptively still water that runs very deep.

November 7, 2008
All About Jazz By EYAL HAREUVENI

This beautiful gem offers a surprising collaboration between multifaceted composer and alto saxophonist Matthew Welch and performance artist, sculptor, dancer and guitarist Craig Colorusso. Brooklyn-based Welch is known for blending his Scottish roots into his compositions—often by playing the bagpipes—but he is also influenced by Indonesian Gamelan music, have studied with such composers as Alvin Lucier and Anthony Braxton, and having collaborated with sound alchemist Ikue Mori on her Balinese odyssey Bhima Swarga (Tzadik, 2007). Ceol Nua (Leo, 2002) and Dream Tigers (Tzadik, 2005) demonstrated Welch's wide spectrum of references.

New England-based Colorusso has played in several indie bands, released the solo guitar album Strap Parts (Moodswing Records, 2005) and, in the last decade, has composed soundscapes for his installations, including Between Two Worlds, created in collaboration with visual artist Jeph Gurecka to honor the deceased in the World Trade Center disaster. Rusted Breath Quiet Hands is released on Colorusso's newly founded label.

"I, one of two long tracks, is a slow drone improvisation/composition, where Colorusso produces dark and resonating sounds by bowing the guitar, with Welch adding long and sustained notes that hint gently about his Scottish musical heritage. The tension of the spare guitar fretting is resolved beautifully by the sax fluctuations. "II" is a lighter piece that maintains the mysterious atmosphere of the first track; the "Quiet Hands" part of this release. It offers a gentler meditation on quiet and simple sounds such as the soft strumming of the guitar and Welch's subdued alto sax work, which slowly gains in volume and articulation. A strange and fascinating recording.

March 11, 2008
Chain DLK by Ian Hall

Rusted Breath Quiet Hands is a collaborative effort featuring Brooklyn-based alto saxophonist/composer Matthew Welch (rusted breath) and New England’s Craig Colorusso, a performance artist, dancer, sculptor, and guitarist (quiet hands). This self-titled CD – the second release on Colorusso’s MUUD label – includes two lengthy, untitled tracks. The first track begins with the sinister sound of Colorusso’s guitar coming to life as low moans are wrenches from its strings with a bow. This is soon accompanied by Welch, who improvises a series of long, sustained notes punctuated by the occasional melodic turn. The overall effect is somewhat reminiscent of bagpipes, with the powerful undertone of Colorusso’s bowed guitar providing a steady, low-end hum to support Welch’s higher, extended tones and chanter-like interludes. It’s a very novel and innovative interplay between the two instruments. The second song reverts to a more traditional sound for each instrument. Welch’s range on the alto really comes to the fore here, as he paints portraits of sound onto the wide open canvas of Colorusso’s slowly repeated, gently articulated guitar arpeggios and harp-like strums. The sax calls gently at times and cries out loud at others, alternately hiding behind and leaping out in front of its companion guitar. This piece is lovely, and evokes the feeling of swinging slowly in a hammock on a warm summer morning. This is an impressive debut with a cleverly onomatopoetic, descriptive name that humbly sums up its components. This disc should appeal very much to fans of organic experimental music.





January 2, 2012
Touching Extremes By Massimo Ricci

A strange record – not since this music is “strange” per se (it is indeed quite simply structured, serene, useful for meditative applications in a way) but because its originators come from experiences that didn’t let intuit this meshing of cleanness and consonance. Alto saxophonist and composer Welch has been a student of Barry Truax, Rodney Sharman, Alvin Lucier and Anthony Braxton, some of his work already released by Tzadik (2005’s “Dream Tigers”), while Colorusso is a self-defined “musician, composer, improviser, dancer and sculptor” and a lover of “loud distorted guitar driven music” who “found himself in one too many bars” at one point. He has toured with China Pig, Olive Grain and Diving Bell (all unknown to this still very ignorant reviewer). After such a pair of curricula, here’s a disc with two long, slow tracks: the first features beautiful drones by Colorusso, over which Welch holds tones and lays Celtic-influenced phrases, the second – even more tranquilizing – is built upon peaceful sax melodies and rather elementary arpeggios. There’s no trace of twist, no deviation from the consonant path, and today the sun is shining beautifully. So did I like this album? Yes, I did. The duo’s concentrated ingenuousness, Colorusso’s alluring repetitions, the corpulent timbre of Welch’s alto – it all clicked at the right moment. It happens even to the evil ones.