Lost Map Records are delighted to introduce 360° makers of kaleidoscopic electro-acoustic audio-visual wonderment Grasscourt, AKA Tom Percival and Matt Lacey from Stroud, Gloucestershire. Their debut double A-side single ‘Come Alive’ b/w ‘Stones Upon My Chest’ will be released as a PostMap postcard single on June 22, 2018, also featuring remixes by Bob Pentagon and Lost Map’s own Firestations. Matt has played with a whole host of other bands and projects in the past including Bristol’s OLO Worms, Delifinger and Gorlkeepers, while Tom is an author and illustrator of children’s books with a background in animation. The pair craft all of their own visuals as well as sounds, including two sensational videos for ‘Stones Upon My Chest’ (contains Tom dragging Matt’s body around in the woods, gratuitous close-ups of worms, a singing rock) and ‘Come Alive’ (Salvador Dali meets Flight of the Conchords). Grasscourt will mark the release of their debut single with a gig at Sounds Records in Stroud on Saturday, June 30.

Tom and Matt started making music together after a chance encounter at a local fundraising event led Tom to ask, “wait... don’t I know you from somewhere?” Matt initially replied, “err, no, I don’t think so...” and tried to back away, but was unfortunately standing against a wall. After a while it became apparent that their paths had indeed crossed before – Tom had been drinking disgusting spinach and vodka shots while watching Matt’s old band OLO Worms in Bristol a few years previously. As soon as the subject turned to music it became clear that this was a shared passion and they decided to see if they could create anything interesting of their own.

Every Friday after that (apart from all the Fridays that they were busy or couldn’t be bothered) they met up in Tom’s attic studio and had a go at recording some songs using whichever instruments, genres, samples and equipment they could lay their hands on. After a while, these meandering experiments began to take a cohesive, if slightly ramshackle form until eventually, a clear body of recorded work began to emerge. Local culture and listings magazine Good On Paper heard a couple of these tracks and were impressed enough to invite Grasscourt to play at their annual party. Tom and Matt jumped at the chance, then realised that they didn’t have enough hands to play all the different instruments which they played on the recordings. After a tireless search, they eventually secured the services of Anneliesa to play synths and samples – a process that should have been simpler due to the fact that she is married to Matt.

With an inventive collection of songs of songs, an expanding live act, and some video ideas it was time to tie everything to a balloon and cast it into the sky in the hope that Grasscourt would find a home. Metaphorically speaking, anyway. In the metaphor, that balloon ends up tangled in the washing line of Lost Map Record’s Johnny Lynch, who carries it into his lovely home on the Isle of Eigg and takes care of it. In reality, they actually sent some MP3s over the internet – but the end result was largely the same, and the balloon story is a lot more engaging.

And so the rest, as they say, is history. Or at least it will be when it’s happened. So more accurately, the rest, as they say, is the future. Grasscourt – coming to a town near you (as long as it’s Stroud.)