Brighton-based songwriter Nik Barrell returns with ‘Lost’, a haunting and beautiful new single taken from his EP Almost Home. Written and recorded in his self-built van-studio while travelling alone through Spain and Portugal last winter, the track carries the quiet intensity of those landscapes — the long roads, the mountains, the silence, all folded into its emotional core.
Barrell, originally from London and long known for his troubadour spirit, converted an old Renault Master, affectionately named Bertie Van Doogle, into a home, recording space, and creative sanctuary. Packed with microphones, guitars, a mini keyboard, and even a drum kit, the van became both refuge and catalyst, allowing the songs to take shape organically in motion. The drums for ‘Lost’ were captured in the mountains of Portugal, their atmosphere imprinted directly into the recording.
‘Lost’ emerged during a period that reshaped Barrell’s life, Covid pulling foundations apart, global turmoil unfolding, and the passing of his father. The song reaches into that space where grief, confusion, and the fragile hope of meaning intersect. In typical Nik Barrell fashion, it transforms turmoil into clarity, turning a relationship unraveling into something that reveals deeper truths about identity and direction.
Barrell explains, “If you’ve found that you are lost, then you’ve just begun to find yourself.”
The track also reflects a central belief that guides his creative process: the conditions in which music is made shape the music itself. Creating on the road, far from screens, far from pressure, deeply connected to place, allowed him to capture a state of being that is often inaccessible in a polished studio environment. As the world becomes increasingly distanced, Barrell leans toward rawness, motion, and presence. The result is music shaped by weather and geography.
This philosophy extends to the visual world of Almost Home. Barrell is releasing hand-drawn animations for the EP, each echoing the tactile, human, screen-free ethos behind the music. The video for ‘Little Blackbird’ is already out, with the animation for ‘Lost’ arriving soon.
Almost Home follows Barrell’s album Home, written and shaped during that same winter of travel. Together, the two projects trace not only a physical journey through Portugal and Spain, but an emotional one – navigating loss, rediscovery, and the shifting meaning of what “home” truly is.
Listen to the full EP below:
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