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‘Terzo’: an Italian word translating as ‘the third’, it represents an additional presence that new darkwave/shoegaze/post-rock duo Terzo sensed inhabiting their most creative moments when they began working together.
Karl Clinton (former bassist in post-punk act Diskoteket, plus co-founder of improvisational project Tsantsa) and Billie Lindahl (lead singer and guitarist in dream pop/dark folk act Promise and the Monster) share a mutual penchant for dark sounding music in all its forms. They have also both been itching to free the shackles binding them to strict timelines; not only those of the music industry, but society in general. “Terzo was born out of a discussion about songs we mutually liked and a wish to try a different work process to our then current projects,” they state. “We wanted to do whatever we wanted without restrictions, using our obsession and gut feeling as guidance.”
Their preference for music and art that embodies a degree of doom and gloom is evident on their upcoming self-titled debut album, ‘Terzo’, with its central theme of ‘love and death’ linking all six tracks and packaged in superb artwork by designer Tina Damgaard. Recorded in the same studio as ‘Cymbeline’, their recent 11 minute post-rock epic first single, its follow-up ‘Eve Seven’ is half that length and possesses an entrancing quality. Distorted electric guitars embedded in thick layers of synths and drums provide the perfect dreamscape for a bewitching vocal performance. “We wanted to make a song with similar chords to ‘Lambada’, which is a song we both love,” states Lindahl, “so we added guitars and a lyrical theme from an X-Files episode about seven cloned girls all called Eve. You can’t really hear the ‘Lambada’ element in the finished song, but it’s there!”
As for its promo video, she adds: “the main inspiration was both The X-Files and the movie The Lost Boys. We shot it early one morning on the beach when everybody else was still asleep, except for this one dude who shouted at us “you guys are up to no good, huh”, ha ha.”
In the midst of recording ‘Terzo’, both Clinton and Lindahl felt the sensation of a third presence keeping them company. Intrigued by the thought, they explain that “we started talking about the appearance of a third element, in sleep and in dreams. Terzo is about acknowledging this, the swirl that light in the darkness generates, opening ourselves out toward our own weaknesses.”
Terzo travelled to New York in the summer of 2022 to play their first live shows, with video maker and photographer Johan Lundsten accompanying them to document the trip. Footage from this can be seen in the videos for both singles to date.
TERZO
TRACKLISTING
1 Cymbeline (10:46)
2 Walking Dreams Awake (5:25)
3 Du gav mig solen, jag gav dig månen (4:43)
4 Eve Seven (5:34)
5 Viskningar och rop (3:40)
6 Blue Crystal Fire (8:53)
TERZO | photography by Johan Lundsten
TERZO
Karl Clinton | Billie Lindahl
