​Lorde has been back in the studio.

US synth-pop producer Porches, aka Aaron Maine, posted an Instagram story yesterday that features a new vocal from the New Zealand singer-songwriter.

The 12-second clip shows a music mixing computer programme, with one track line labelled "Lorde". Ella Yelich-O'Connor's distinctive voice can be clearly heard over the top.

GEORGE HEARD/STUFF Lorde performing in Christchurch while touring her second album, Melodrama - could this new track be for her third album?

She is singing lyrics from Goodbye, a track that appeared on Porches' 2018 album The House, suggesting that Porches is producing a remix.

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It's not clear what purpose the recording serves. Porches has a new album, Ricky Music, due out on March 13, but a remix of Goodbye is not among the 11 tracks that have been announced.

Lorde, meanwhile, suggested in June last year that work on her own next album was underway, saying in an Instagram post marking two years since the launch of her second album, Melodrama, that a "third one (was) in the oven."

But in November, she announced that the recent death of much-loved dog, Pearl, could delay her next album release.

Supplied Porches, aka Aaron Maine, teased the new track on Instagram.

"I'm asking for your patience, as 2020 comes around and you start to wonder where the next record is. I have lost my boy, and I need some time to see the good again, to finish making this for you," Lorde wrote in an email to fans.

Since the lunch of her first album, Pure Heroine, with its breakout single Royals, in 2013, 23-year-old Lorde has sold over 5 million albums worldwide and won two Grammys and two Brit Awards.

She is currently based in Auckland, where she was born and raised.