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May 31, 2016 Amanda Palmer By Christopher Roberts Photography by Painting by Sarah Beetson

Amanda Palmer and Jherek Bischoff have teamed up to cover Prince‘s classic “Purple Rain,” the title track to the late musician’s 1984 album (and soundtrack to the film of the same name). The cover can be streamed below and bought via Palmer’s Bandcamp for $1.00, with all proceeds benefitting The Elevate Hope Foundation (EHF), which, as a press release describes, is “a music and arts therapy program for abused and abandoned children co-founded by Sheila E. and long supported by Prince.”

The cover features a string quartet. Back in February Palmer and Biscoff released an EP of David Bowie covers entitled Strung Out In Heaven: A Bowie String Quartet Tribute. The EP featured covers of six Bowie songs and also includes contributions from Anna Calvi, John Cameron Mitchell, and author Neil Gaiman (Palmer’s husband).

Palmer commented on the “Purple Rain” cover, which opens with the spoken word intro to “Let’s Go Crazy,” in a press release: “When our heroes die, we feel our own deaths coming down the pike. We didn’t expect to spend our winter and spring on these projects, but there is something unsettlingly beautiful about paying homage to Bowie and then, just a few months later, Prince. Rushing to the music itself and throwing ourselves into the recreating of the songs has proven to be not only therapeutic for us, but for our fans. We all know that we won’t stick around forever, and art and music - mine, Jherek’s, Prince’s, Bowie’s - is the glue that keeps us all connected beyond the terror of our own mortality. We will all die, but we’ll be survived by all the songs we ever passed along.”

Biscoff added: “Amanda and I had recently made the EP of David Bowie covers, and when Prince passed away, we went back and forth about whether we should make something. We knew in our hearts that we wanted to, but it seemed like a bit much, so soon after the Bowie record. But losing Prince was just too much. Losing them both, just too much. Making the Bowie record had been so extremely therapeutic for us, and getting deep into those songs was such an intense and beautiful experience. It was no different working on this. It just gave me an even deeper love of one of the greatest musicians ever to walk this earth.”

The recording was made possible with support from 8,000 supporters on Palmer’s Patreon page. The above artwork was done by artist and illustrator Sarah Beetson.

Palmer recently announced You Got Me Singing, a new collaborative album with her father, Jack Palmer, that’s due out July 15.