“The piano was discovered on top of Topanga Lookout, near Stunt Road in the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area. Several photos posted to Instagram indicated the piano was hauled up Tuesday to the ridgeline for a music video shoot involving Seatlle-based artist Rachel Wong. Wong was a finalist in Ford’s 2012 “Gimme the Gig II” contest, according to her biography. The photos showed the five-person crew using a rope to pull the piano up a narrow trail, part of a two-mile round trip hike with about 160 feet of elevation gain. They used a moving dolly on some parts of the rugged trail, a job that took about 45 minutes, said videographer Michael Froton. Aerial video Thursday afternoon showed hikers playing the piano on the graffiti-covered concrete foundation of an old fire tower and taking pictures of the instrument with a dramatic natural backdrop. “It shows how different we are”, said hiker Nick Herron. “Where else do you hear about a piano on top of a ridge?” – Jonathan Lloyd and Adrian Arambulo

A person sits at an upright piano that had been hauled up to Topanga Lookout in the Santa Monica Mountains in Calabasas, Calif. For a couple of days last week, a Southern California hilltop was alive with the sound of mystery. Hikers venturing to Topanga Lookout 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. (Photo by Michael Flotron/AP Photo) Continue reading »