Legendary English punk rocker Steve Lake of Zounds and American opera singer Mia Dean will release their anticipated duet offering, Blood Moon Wedding: An American Nightmare, on 07 April 2023 via Mobilization Recordings. The trans-Atlantic post/art-punk duo has dropped the album’s first single, Spell, which comes with a stirring DIY music video.

Steve Lake informs: “Spell is the beginning of our story, so I have always had it in mind that we would release it as the first single.” It comes in rather triumphant, but also has so many interwoven, chaotic, sonic elements that set the stage for our rather wild adventure.”

Speaking of the video, Mia Dean offers: “We shot most of the video at the ruins of Farleigh Hungerford Castle, and in the gorgeous, still standing, fourteenth century chapel on the site. The rest was filmed on the shore of the San Francisco Bay. The effect is as otherworldly as the bizarre lyrics and delivery. It’s great fun to hear and watch their vocal interplay.”

Blood Moon Wedding is a road trip of horrors through an alternate reality. Set in the sprawling deserts of the United States, Steve and Mia find themselves trapped in a shadow world where death and love are the only way through the gates of space and time. Exploring themes of mass murder, gun violence, and trauma bonding, Blood Moon Wedding is a dramatic commentary on the violence in American society.

Blood Moon Wedding is a themed album of dramatic songs, atmospheric soundscapes and magical-realist spoken word. It was written by Mia and Steve, in California and the South West of England during the 2020 lockdown, and brought to life with the support of Oakland Composer Tom Dean (Antler Family, Code of the West, Oakland Opera) on keys and bass, Jason Willer (Jello Biafra & GSM, Charger, Acid King) on drums, and David Coulter (The Pogues, Tom Waits, Test Department) on musical saw, violin, and leslie piano. Additional recording assistance was provided by Skot Brown (Altar de Fey, Esses, Phantom Limbs) and Salvador Raya (Asunder, Laudanum) in Oakland, mixed in Los Angeles by Alex DeGroot (Zola Jesus, Sondra Sun Odeon), and mastered by Justin Weis at Trakworx.

Track Listing:
Spell
Some Things Are Worth Believing
Wanted
Looking for Us
Murder Ballad
Hey Mia Do You Remember?
Wild
Blood Moon Wedding part 1
Blood Moon Wedding part 2
Pn M2-9