Media release 10 October 2015 Play School pianist plays for adults: “Songs for Solo Piano” by Peter Dasent Recorded at Abbey Road studios, out on Armchair Records through MGM

Peter Dasent is a music composer/ director and album producer. He is ABC’s Play School pianist and leader of the notorious ensemble The Umbrellas. Peter has recorded a delightful album of solo piano works at the famous Abbey Road studios in London. The album will be launched November 8 at ‘Colbourne Ave’ in Glebe, Sydney

“Dasent's composing bears occasional parallels to the work of Frank Zappa, Thelonious Monk and Nino Rota, with Rota's Fellini film music celebrated on one Umbrellas album. But all influences are warped through the prism of Dasent's sense of aesthetics and humour, and all improvising is subservient to the needs of the compositions.” John Shand, SMH, review of The Umbrellas.

BIOGRAPHY * Dasent was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1954 and learned piano from age 8, discovering the Beatles, classic sixties pop groups and his father's jazz 78s along the way. * He was a founding member of legendary NZ band The Crocodiles, with Jenny Morris. * In 1981 he moved to Sydney and undertook Jazz Studies at NSW Conservatorium of Music. * Peter formed The Umbrellas in 1985. They toured extensively including Musica Viva In Schools and they released four albums, the latest being Lounge Suite Tango (2015). * Screen composition work includes: 3 Peter Jackson films - Heavenly Creatures, Meet The Feebles and Braindead (aka Dead Alive) * Children’s music highlights: Pianist on ABC-TV's PlaySchool for 15 years, songwriter and producer of 3 Play School CDs. Producer and songwriter for Justine Clarke's 3 best-selling CDs with a 4th released soon. The Underwatermelon Man, a book and CD of absurd poems created with Fane Flaws, Arthur Baysting and singers including Neil and Tim Finn, Renee Geyer, Don McGlashan, Bic Runga, Dave Dobbyn and Jenny Morris. * Peter’s album, Songs For Solo Piano, recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London is released in November 2015 on Armchair Records through MGM. Notes from Peter Dasent: “The piano has been at the forefront of my musical life since I was eight years old, when I was sent along to the local music teacher with no expectations at all by my parents who just thought that their kids should learn the piano. When I sit at the keyboard today it looks the same as it has always done, but instead of looking to a piece of written music to play I enjoy the kinesthetic experience of putting my fingers wherever they happen to fall and hopefully creating something musically interesting. Sometimes it’s rubbish, and sometimes a bit of magic happens. I hope you enjoy the music on this album. This album is a collection of original piano compositions spanning more than 30 years. The oldest, ‘Blues ForThe High Priest’, was written in 1982 after hearing that Thelonious Monk had died. The most recent, ‘March Of The Rusks’ and ‘A Walk In The White Forest’, were composed in London in 2013 while I was rehearsing for the recording session. The pieces are in no single style; they range from gentle meditations to blues, rags and stomps, sometimes within the same piece. The music is soon to be published in sheet music form. ’Heavenly Creatures’ is an arrangement of the main theme from Peter Jackson’s 1994 film of the same name. ‘Waltz For A Wedding’ was composed for the wedding of Annette and David Hall in 1984. Annette passed away in 1996 and this performance is dedicated to her memory. The remaining pieces were composed at various times over the last 30-odd years, most having their start as an improvised “noodle” on the piano, with an idea scribbled down or hastily recorded in very raw and basic form before being thrashed into some kind of completeness over a period of time. Recording at Abbey Road was something of a special treat of course - being a longtime Beatles fan I’d seen the photos and read the stories and stared at the album cover and so on. The Bosendorfer piano was in Studio 3, where - amongst many other famous recordings - Pink Floyd made Wish You Were Here and The Beatles mixed ‘Taxman’. “ Inquiries, interviews, CDs, high-res photos - [email protected] +61 419 448847