For days, the Southern California hilltop was alive with the sound of mystery when hikers found a battered upright piano sitting on a graffiti-scrawled concrete slab.

But the scene at Topanga Lookout in the Santa Monica Mountains, between Calabasas and the Pacific Ocean, has turned out to be the setting for a music video by Seattle-based artist Rachel Wong.

The cinematographer, Michael Flotron, said he and four others used a dolly and rope to haul the 350lb instrument a mile up the trail on Tuesday.

But after the shoot, it was too dark to get the piano back down.

Mr Flotron says people seem happy to leave it there, but if necessary he will haul the piano back down.