St. Catherine’s Child is the project of singer-songwriter Ilana Zsigmond, whose work moves between England and Connecticut. Her 2025 album This Might Affect You has already passed four million streams and begun to circulate within press circles, including The Line of Best Fit and Hot Press. That growing visibility has followed her signing to TRO Essex Music and its label arm Shamus Records, a home to artists such as Crys Matthews and Flamy Grant, alongside a catalogue that spans Woody Guthrie, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, and Black Sabbath.
The project’s newest release is a double cover of two well-known classics, reimagined with a gritty, cinematic sensibility that feels unmistakably Ilana’s. It features “Cosmic Dancer” by T. Rex and “Fly Me to the Moon” by Bart Howard, best known through Frank Sinatra’s iconic version.
For “Fly Me To the Moon,” Ilana chose a slow-burn ballad approach with undertones of dark, moody blues-rock and even some post-punk gestures. The background reverb, clockwork heartbeat, and ghostly vocals turn the song on its head, delivering a desert gothic Americana aesthetic in place of the commonly NASA-associated romantic jazz-swing.
On the other hand, T.Rex’s mellow psychedelic masterpiece “Cosmic Dancer” goes into a haunting new territory, as Ilana turns it into a melancholic piano and synth-string driven piece. Her take on this song is particularly stunning because of how much vulnerability and sorrow she infuses the vocals with. The cover is very emotionally compelling, comparable only with Morrissey X Bowie’s own live rendition of it from 1991.
On paper, these two songs share almost nothing. One is a slinking, minor-key piece that leans into fate and self-consciousness, set against a bolero-like rhythm. The other is a major-key, waltz-time swing standard about romantic escape. Brought together and reimagined through the creative lens of St. Catherine’s Child, they form a portrait of an artist unafraid of risk, guided by a clear and confident vision.
Both covers are quietly obsessed with the same deeply human longing. Ilana reaches for the chaos of the cosmos in one and dissolves into the intimacy of love in the other, two classics that were always asking the same question from opposite ends of the universe.
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