Danny Widdicombe & Ant Aggs

Space music for a lockdown environment, 'FACE' is the new ambient, instrumental album by Brisbane based musicians Danny Widdicombe and Ant Aggs. 'FACE' is an online music collaboration which combines Ant's delicate piano, and Danny's weepingly lyrical pedal steel lines. The album was first intended to be a cathartic activity, designed to help keep Danny and Ant relaxed, stay positive and promote general good mental health during lock down. 'FACE' is comprised of three space inspired tracks, each named after stars – 'Delta Delphini', 'Vega' and 'Alpha Centauri'.

Danny explains how 'FACE' came about, "The day Tom Hanks was diagnosed with COVID-19, Ant and I happened to be meeting for a coffee. We both decided we should go into immediate self-isolation because, by a complete twist of fate, we had been in the same room as him only a couple of days before. If we had the virus, the responsible thing to do was to self-isolate. That night we decided to collaborate online and create music for ourselves that would suit the lock down environment. This wasn't originally intended for release – purely for the love of doing it. I'm an amateur astronomer and every night in lockdown, I would take pics of the moon. I love looking at the skies and I thought it was appropriate that we should make space music for this lockdown environment."

Over the course of March April and May 2020, Ant would send Danny snippets of piano sketches, that Danny would stitch into compositions. With the addition of the lyrical and ethereal sounds from his pedal steel guitar (normally used in country music), Danny produced three long tracks that became the album 'FACE'.
 

The cover art for the album was created by Danny's daughter India. India's art has graced the covers of the last three of Danny's releases. His album of songs in collaboration with Trichtomy from 2019 "Between the Lines" has a wonderful line drawing from India. Also Danny's 2018 ambient electronic album 'Ambrosia' features an electronic drawing created on India's iPad. India has also created a film clip for the first track on the album 'Delta Delphini'.

Danny Widdicombe is usually a singer-songwriter that has been described as being from the realms of folk / alt-country / blues – but his influences and output are much more varied than this genre allocation suggests. Danny's ambient electronic album 'Ambrosia' from 2018 shows the broad palette he works with to create music that follows his own path. With his band The Wilson Pickers, Danny has been nominated for 3 ARIA Awards, was the recipient of the coveted GW McLennan Memorial Fellowship, among other awards. Danny is currently in a band The Honey Sliders and has played guitar for the likes of Bernard Fanning, Tim Rogers and many others.
 
Ant Aggs is a pianist / producer, from Brisbane. He has toured the world as a member of The Resin Dogs and Xavier Rudd's band and many others. Ant is one of the most in-demand pianists and producers in Australia, in both the studio and as a touring artist. Ant has also had compositions synced to film and television productions.