This time last year, Gaurav Bashyakarla was preparing to move from Lawrence to California. A week before he was set to leave, Bashyakarla got together with his friend Josh Thomas and spent a couple of afternoons recording music in Thomas' basement. "We'd always talked about recording together," Thomas says. "We were messing around with all this stuff I have: an old Clavinova, a bunch of guitar pedals, different effects. We just plugged it all up and played whatever weird music we could come up with. Then we kind of edited it all together. Didn't really think too much of it. Written, recorded and done in, like, seven hours." Shortly afterward, Bashyakarla went through what he describes as "some personal turmoil" and he found himself unable to relocate. He elected to stick around Lawrence and finish his degree, a decision that coincided with those recordings (which he and Thomas put online under the name CVLTS) finding their way to people at AMDISCS, a European label with an eye toward experimental and ambient music. AMDISCS subsequently released those afternoon recordings on 100 limited-edition cassettes, titled LVST. The tapes quickly sold out.
— Nick Spacek
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