Photos / Cameron S. Mitchell
Story / Samuel Aponte
Anita Aysola isn’t offering directions. On “Lost Ones,” the producer and composer makes a compelling case for wandering off the map.
The single opens with a dreamlike piano line, its edges softened by atmospheric textures. There’s something inviting about the space she creates, even as the arrangement keeps you slightly unsettled. Just when you think you’ve found your footing, another sound shifts the ground.
Above it all is Aysola’s voice: high, expressive, and capable of turning a phrase into something that seems to hover outside the song. There are flashes of Kate Bush’s theatrical instinct and Björk’s appetite for unfamiliar terrain, but Aysola gives the track its own emotional logic. Her delivery moves between intimacy and release, drawing you closer before reaching beyond the frame.
“Lost Ones” keeps building. Samples and instrumental layers gather around the piano, pushing the track toward a crescendo without sacrificing its sense of mystery. You can hear the compositional care, but the song leaves room for feeling to take over.
Aysola’s grounding in Western and Hindustani classical music informs that balance of precision and freedom. The project’s collaborators include Dave Eggar, Adam Levy, Charley Drayton, and Gus Seyffert, with mixing by Cian Riordan and mastering by Ryan O’Flaherty. The sound is expansive, yet her voice remains the point of connection.
At its center, “Lost Ones” sits with the discomfort of uncertainty. Aysola lets the tension linger, giving the listener space to consider what happens when the need for an answer starts to loosen its grip. By the time the instruments fall away, the question feels more interesting than a resolution.
The single introduces Dreamwalker, her forthcoming self-produced debut album, expected in 2027. Its world extends into a companion film shot during winter in northern Iceland, where the isolated landscape offers a fitting setting for music this drawn to the unfamiliar. The film has also been named an Official Entry at Utah’s FilmQuest festival.
For now, “Lost Ones” is an intriguing first encounter. Aysola has a feel for scale, atmosphere, and the small vocal details that make an ambitious song feel personal. Follow her into the mist. See what turns up.
CONNECT WITH ANITA AYSOLA:
INSTAGRAM