Hilltop Piano Mystery Solved: Music Video Prop

For a couple of days this week, a Southern California hilltop was alive with the sound of—mystery. Hikers venturing to Topanga Lookout in the Santa Monica Mountains found a battered upright piano, sitting on a graffiti-scrawled concrete slab with a panoramic view over the mountains between Calabasas and the Pacific Ocean. Turns out, the piano was used for a music video by Seattle-based artist Rachel Wong.

The cinematographer, Michael Flotron, says he and four others used a dolly and rope to haul the 350-pound instrument a mile up the trail on Tuesday. After the shoot, it was too dark to get the piano back down. Flotron says people seem happy to leave it there—but if necessary, he'll haul the piano back down. (More strange stuff stories.)