Tonight is another full moon, and Trans-Atlantic art-punk-noir duo, Mia Dean and Steve Lake, have a new offering. This time, appropriate for this particular lunar phase, it is a cover of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon.
Steve Lake (Zounds) teamed up with American opera singer, Mia Dean, in this multi-dimensional art project. Joined by multi-instrumentalist David Coulter on marxophone, the song was performed as live as possible from a distance of 6000 miles.
Channeling classic gothic noir vibes such as the duets of Anita Lane and Mick Harvey, Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra, and PJ Harvey and Thom Yorke, the cover of the classic love song is sensual, psychedelic, and cosmic. It comes with the unsettling and slightly menacing flair of a David Lynch film, however, as Harvest Moon moves away from Young’s inimitable wail and becomes a plaintive duet; as if disembodied spirits floating through a midnight cornfield have reconvened to assert their mortal regrets.
Watch the video for “Harvest Moon” below:
“We have been doing full moon performances on Instagram for the last few months and wanted to find a way to perform together since Blood Moon Wedding is turning one in a few days, which happened to line up with the Harvest Moon,” says Mia Dean. “There is no more iconic moon song than Neil Young’s, so we decided to give it a try and came up with a low-fi, celebratory vibe that we thought really suited the song. We had so much fun making this and find it intriguing that we appear to be occupying the same space and that maybe we even appear to be in outer space, cause we are still 6000 miles apart, making it work.”
A beautiful tribute to Young’s songwriting and to the goddess Diana herself. May your harvests be bountiful this autumnal equinox.
Find the song on Bandcamp here.