Pax Recordings

pax (pash) A Mayan word meaning "the power of music."

In 1997, San Francisco composer/guitarist Ernesto Diaz-Infante began the Pax Recordings record label which is dedicated to the documentation, perservation, and contagion of music from the margins of our culture and psyches. He and filmmaker/musician Marjorie Sturm co-conspire and run Pax Recordings. Their most significant release is a compilation CD of twenty-six artists titled "Voices In the Wilderness: Dissenting Soundscapes and Songs of GW's America.

myspace.com/paxrecordings

SABRINA SIEGEL: Grace/Precarious
The debut Pax release from Sabrina Siegel, "Grace/Precarious" is her fifth CD of solo improvised music. An exploration through electric guitar, voice, and cello. An extremely raw, visceral, and unique expression.
Recommended if you like John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, Jandek.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
RUDIS/CUSTODIO/DIAZ-INFANTE: CRR Live
This exorcism of soundscapes is an eclectic mix of instruments and their uses. Darbuka, voice, extended guitar techniques, synths and live DJing. Textures and tones from abrasive noise, hallucinogenic contemplation, ambient relief, and hardcore collage.
Recommended if you like Merzbow, Wolf Eyes, Peeesseye.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
STEPHEN FLINN/NOAH PHILLIPS DUO AND TRIO WITH TIM PERKIS: Square Circle
The debut release from the Stephen Flinn - Noah Phillps Duo and trio with Tim Perkis is a collection of adventurous spontaneous improvisations. Stephen Flinn (drums, junk percussion) Noah Phillps (electric guitar) Tim Perkis (electronics).
Recommended if you like John Stevens, Susie Ibarra, Gino Robair.
CD price: $16.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
REVERBERATIONS FROM SPRING PAST: Diaz-Infante/Fernandes/Montoya/Romus
2006 release recorded live & in studio during the Spring Reverb 04 Festival in San Diego, California. brings together four West Coast veterans who combine their distinctive voices. "Reverberations" is wild, raw, energetic and headstrong." --tokafi
Recommended if you like John Zorn, Albert Ayler, Derek Bailey.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
NA: Naisnice
na reaches musical cacophony, combining improvisation and noise with a slight pop slant. "na is that exceptionally rare experimental act that is actually interested in...experimentation." --Sean Molnar, Signal to Noise
Recommended if you like Boredoms, The Abstractions, Majik.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
HELENA ESPVALL: nimis & arx
The debut solo release from Helena Espvall, cellist of folk-psych band Espers. With production and electronics provided by sonic maverick George Korein of Infidel?/Castro., Nimis & Arx is a recording of translucid wonder.
Recommended if you like Pauline Oliveros, Espers.
CD price: $30.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
JESS ROWLAND: Scenes From The Silent Revolution
This one-of-a-kind 2-disc set features a CD of Jess' art-damage electronic music & songs plus a DVD of "found video sound sculptures" with improv based music compositions...
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS: Dissenting Soundscapes and Songs of G.W.'s America
STOP THE WAR. Created out of the anxiety & disillusionment of GW's reelection on 11/04. This CD of 26 artists transcends music genres & ideologies w/ the common purpose of dissent towards the Bush regime. END THE WAR IN IRAQ. Limited edition almost gone.
Recommended if you like Bush, Charlie Haden, The Now, Liberation, The Rock, For Against, Orchestra.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
THOLLEM MCDONAS: solo piano
This CD is a long series of short compositions/improvs for solo piano. A collection of thollem's ideas from the last 5 years, some previously unpublished, others re-realized. his interaction with the world & the piano, some are simple, others complex...
Recommended if you like Keith Jarrett, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra.
CD price: $14.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
POETIKS: Gypsy Thrift
Poetiks music is dark-pop with roots in folk songwriting. Moments of psychedelic display and simple rock motifs surround sing-songy lyrics with undertones of critical social dismay that's coated with lyrical idealism.
CD price: $12.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
MARINA LAZZARA: Wind On The Firecracker Of The Building Next Door, the songs
The songs on Wind... attempt to re-envision the symbolic plasticity of the pop-folk ballad and to dig into the spontaneous expression of song as nature. Noise folk... where the "experimental" meets the "song".
Recommended if you like Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, Exene Cervenka.
CD price: $12.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE & CHRIS FORSYTH: (as is stated...before known)
From their 2004 CD release, a kaleidoscopic range of post-Bailey approaches, quiet Fahey-esque folk-influenced fingerpicking. "I highly recommend this disc for a taste of some other aspects of what guitars can do." --Steve Koenig, Jump Arts Journal.
Recommended if you like John Fahey, Taku Sugimoto, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Frissell, Chadbourne, Bailey, Loren Connors, Alan Licht, Thurston Moore, Burkhard Stangl.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
JESS ROWLAND: H.29
This collection of piano improvisation represents taoist practice in sound. Free-form explosions like a Sun Ra organ blast, unexpected tonalities like Schoenberg, & crisp edges like Cecil Taylor. Jess plays her unique form of "stream-of-consciousness..."
Recommended if you like Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Arnold Schönberg.
CD price: $16.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
THE ABSTRACTIONS: Novo Navigatio
2004 CD release of West Coast subtle, psychedelia-improv to experimental songs. sinking commentary on the disillusioned atmosphere of George W. Bush's America. "Sounds like Leonard Cohen deconstructed to some really nice abstract noise." --Vital Weekly
Recommended if you like Leonard Cohen, Iva Bittová, Harry Partch, No-Neck Blues Band.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
MUCK: roc
Despite claims otherwise, Muck is Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Matt Davignon & Marjorie Sturm. "The strangest, most disconcerting take on any kind of so-called post-rock I have heard to this day." Francois Couture, All Music Guide
Recommended if you like Maran Gosov, Christina Kubisch, Carbaret Voltaire.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
99 HOOKER'S GENERICA: 99 Hooker's Generica
99 Hooker's Generica is to Pop Music as Crank is to Michelob. With noise legend Donald Miller, reeds master M2 (Chemical Brothers, Mercury Rev)and Lower East Side rhythm king Ray Sage, 99 Hooker's Generica diverges from ye old art rock -
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
IAN YEAGER: music for guitar + computer
Melodies merge and collide into sparking electronic abstraction and dusky sonic detail. "Engaging vapor-like riffs.that sustain with enough depth and peculiarity to be complete." Eric Weddle, Signal to Noise
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
MJANE: prayers from the underbelly
Founded in New Mexico in 2003 by conductor/composer/performer Molly Sturges, mJane is a project which brings together a wide range of improvisational & compositional ideas through live conduction systems to create an ever-changing sonic environment...
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
DAVE TUCKER WEST COAST PROJECT: Tenderloin
Perhaps best known for his work as a guitarist in The Fall between 1980-1, Dave Tucker is an experienced improviser, having worked regularly with improvising ensembles such as the London Improvisers' Orchestra & The School of Velocity with Evan Parker.
Recommended if you like Robert Fripp, This Heat, Mingus.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE & MATT HANNAFIN: All the States Between
Extreme-ambient sound collage mixing electronics, field recordings, & radical turntablism with extended-technique percussion. "Open minded sound collage fans will find much to enjoy here." Jerry Kranitz, Aural Innovations
Recommended if you like Merzbow, Mr Dorgon, Hal McGee.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
MIBA: the corplate porblem
Miba (Kristin Miltner & Mark Bartscher) uses various self-created software patches to scan audio files, creating rhythmic granular textures. "A wonderfully atmospheric, deeply contemplative textural adventure." Allan Harrison, Splendid Magazine
Recommended if you like Klaus Schulze, MotheMallard's Portable Masterpiece Co., Pauline Oliveros, Maggi Payne, Alvin Curran.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
DIAZ-INFANTE/ST.CHAOS/BOHOL: The Long Await Between Collasped Lungs
San Francisco artist Ernesto Diaz-Infante meets Texas-based noisicians Pablo St. Chaos (p.d. wilder) and Bohol for an otherworldly set of guitar trios. "Together they create a mood of experimental psychedelia" Francois Couture, All Music Guide
Recommended if you like Labradford, Spiritualized®, Fred Frith, Charalambides.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
MOE! STAIANO'S MOE!KESTRA!: Two Forms of Multitudes: Conducted Improvisations
A leader in monster ensembles & percussionist for Sleepy Time Guerrilla Museum, Moe. Staiano is a unique bay area percussionist/composer who on this CD leads a mass amount of stellar SF Bay Area musicians playing in huge clusters in a dissonant array...
Recommended if you like Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, London Improvisers Orchestra.
CD price: $16.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
THE ABSTRACTIONS: Ars Vivende
2003 release, this San Francisco collective continues to explore music in all its forms. post-rock, jazz, electroacoustic improv, & noise. "Ars Vivende takes their art much further than before." --François Couture, All Music Guide
Recommended if you like Brutal Truth, Jackson Pollock, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Jackie-O Motherfucker, No-Neck Blues Band.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
GRAND MAL: Bruckmann/Diaz-Infante/Shiurba/Stackpole
Combines the discipline of a classical foundation, weaving together American free jazz & European free improv. "Grand Mal is solid and uncompromising proof that the Bay Area improv scene has really taken off." Dan Warburton, Paris Transatlantic Magazine
Recommended if you like Heinz Holliger, Borbetomagus, Stephane Rives, John Zorn.
CD price: $8.97
ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE: s/t
2003 solo release & most diverse yet. Conceptual. Minimalist. Street recordings, solo guitar pieces, noise improvs, sound collages and vocals/guitar songs. "A fascinating album, uncompromising to the bone." --Francois Couture, All Music Guide
Recommended if you like John Cage, Jandek, Keiji Haino.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
REV.99: Everything Changed After 7-11
a multimedia collective led by legendary NYC underground artist 99Hooker. a chaotic reaction to pre-apocalyptic consumer culture. "Take the time to investigate; it's well worth it." -- François Couture, All Music Guide
Recommended if you like Eugene Chadbourne, Henry Rollins, Rexroth, Ferlinghetti, Kerouac, John Giorno's GPS label, Beefheart, Sun City Girls, Ives, Sun Ra, Mayo Thompson, Mr Bungle.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
THE FOCUS QUINTET: 1-8 in 1
The Focus Quintet works in the undefined area between free jazz and art song. Brought together at the 2001 Big Sur Experimental Music Festival. "Highly disciplined improvising produces a richly rewarding; gentle evocations of a world apart." --The Wire
Recommended if you like Iancu Dumitrescu, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros, Bjork, Luigi Nono, Stockhausen, Cage, Paul Bley, Cathy Berberian.
CD price: $8.97
RUDIS/CUSTODIO/DIAZ-INFANTE: Crashing The Russian Renaissance
From three of SF's leading experimental/new music purveyors, in some seriously adventurous compositions for electronics & guitar. "This recording is radical and often extreme" Steven Loewy, All Music Guide
Recommended if you like John Zorn, Sun Ra, Doctor Nerve.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
ERNESTO DIAZ INFANTE & CHRIS FORSYTH: march
2002 release recorded in NY following their 3 week European tour. A varied sonic guitar terrain of sparse, gestural, electronic static, ringing open strings. "This CD stands in a class of its own and it's recommended" --Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes
Recommended if you like Taku Sugimoto, Derek Bailey, John Cage, Burkhard Stangl, Annette Krebs.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
GO-GO FIGHTMASTER: Go-GO Fightmaster
"Heavy-Metal-Country-Jazz" that embraces both the avant-garde & the straight-ahead. Drawing on all forms of world, popular and folk music to create their refreshingly unique sound. Led by San Francisco Bay Area composer/saxophonist Aaron Bennett.
Recommended if you like John Zorn, Ornette Coleman, Derek Bailey.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC TRANS-PERSONAL ORCHESTRA: Electro-Magnetic Trans-Personal Orchestra
This nine-piece ensemble, with strings, woodwinds, guitar, accordion, and tuba, performs the structured improv compositions of Aaron Bennett, an active composer/saxophonist of the vital San Francisco Bay Area experimental music scene.
Recommended if you like John Zorn, Boredoms, Derek Bailey.
CD price: $16.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE & CHRIS FORSYTH: Wires and Wooden Boxes
Their 2nd studio release recorded in NY 2001 of improvised duets for acoustic & electric guitars, & piano. jagged Bailey-esque, percussive, free jazz inspired & meditative post-Feldman piano. "Recommended." --François Couture, All Music Guide
Recommended if you like Bo Diddley, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Derek Bailey, Marcel Duchamp.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
REV. 99: turn a deaf ear
Environmental improv: composition by temperament & inheritance, playing as one walks in a group, conscious of sound, economics & disdaining "the jam." rev. 99 is led by post-modern artist 99 Hooker who has been performing out of NYC for the last decade.
Recommended if you like Captain Beefheart, Ken Nordine, Eugene Chadbourne, Spontaneous Music Ensemble,, Bobcat Goldthwaite, Stockhausen, Erik Belgum, The French Situationalist movement.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE: Solus
Solus is San Francisco composer Ernesto Diaz-Infante's fourth release in his series of solo piano music. 13 short abstract, atonal, quick cascading improvs."this album casts a new light on Diaz-Infante's previous records" Francois Couture, All Music Guide
Recommended if you like Matthew Shipp, Marilyn Crispell.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
DAVID DVORIN: With(In)communicado
Explorations into new music composition using untraditional instruments. Immediately accessible for the connoisseur or curious alike.
CD price: $10.00 / MP3 price: $10.00
ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE: Ucross Journal
Ucross Journal is San Francisco composer Ernesto Diaz-Infante's 1999 solo piano release. Comprised of 25 Feldmanesque short pieces. "Among Diaz-Infante's prolific oeuvre, this is one of the "should haves" --Noah Wane, Splendid E-zine.
Recommended if you like Morton Feldman, Harold Budd, Giacinto Scelsi.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE: Tepeu
Tepeu is the follow-up to San Francisco composer Ernesto Diaz-Infante's 1997 solo piano release Itz'at. Reflexive, very tonal, romantic at times, gently drawing the listener in. "suitable for framing." Jim Santella, All About Jazz
Recommended if you like Keith Jarrett, Terry Riley, Erik Satie.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97
MORGAN GUBERMAN: Hamadryas Baboon
Adventurous music for solo contrabass
Recommended if you like Barry Guy, Barre Phillips, Peter Kowald.
ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE: Itz'at
Itz'at (Mayan word for artist) is San Francisco composer Ernesto Diaz-Infante's 1997 solo piano debut release. Spacious, slow, minimalist, Feldmanesque feel. "Highly recommended." Richard di Santo, Incursion
Recommended if you like Keith Jarrett, Harold Budd, Erik Satie.
CD price: $8.97 / MP3 price: $8.97