2019 WAS a bumper year for Canberra musician Mike Dooley.

Not only was he named “CityNews” Artist of the Year in November but the night after, in Melbourne, he won the “Best Music for Children’s Television” award at the APRA Screen Music Awards for his score for “The Pilgrim’s Progress”, an animated film based on John Bunyan’s version, which had been released in 850 theatres in the US and in more than 100 theatres in Australia.

During the lead-up to his honours, Dooley also composed “The Heavens Declare”, a commissioned work for two violins premiered at the Canberra International Music Festival. Dooley completed a song cycle “Truth and Beauty” based on the poems of Keats, a classical oratorio for gospel music choir and soloist, “Rockata” for solo piano, several works for the Canberra Wind Symphony and his first piano concerto, premiered by the National Capital Orchestra.

Heady stuff, but by day, Dooley is also a working piano man and music producer who supports his family through his endeavours. A new venture creating “chilled-out smooth jazz and lounge recordings”, to which we were alerted by his collaborator, Daniel White, has seen him in his studio producing easy-listening music.

It was at his own wedding in 2011 that White first met Dooley, who was playing in a small jazz trio at the reception.

They kept in contact. Then, when White was holidaying at Ulladulla and responding to a natural affinity with the ocean “as most Canberrans do” he says, a tune came to his mind, so he approached Dooley who said, “come over and we’ll see what we can do”.

The idea was to produce a chilled-out kind of sound reflecting the calming effects of the ocean.

White, although not an instrumentalist, had been a long-time fan of artists like Steely Dan, Sade and Miles Davis, with a more recent addiction to super-cool influencers, Christopher Goze and Chris Coco.

Dooley, supremely eclectic in his musical tastes, responded to White’s suggestions of concept and melody and came up with a new composition “Oceana”, then recorded it under the new label DM [Daniel Michael] Ascension.

The new single, recorded and mastered over about six months in Dooley’s studio, involved a virtuosic break-out by Canberra sax player Dan Bray, an example of the “many amazing artists and incredible music” coming from Canberra, White thinks.

“Oceana” has now had airplay in Australia and in Spain on the Costa Del Mar’s famous “Chillout” radio channel here.

DM Ascension, White says, is a name replete with hints of all things “deep and meaningful” and an upward trajectory – a sign of more smooth jazz and lounge recordings with a distinct DM beat to come. 

Listen to DM Ascensions “Oceana” on YouTube