Alternative pop/rock icons Billie Lindahl & Karl Clinton debuts new Shoegaze project: Terzo

Terzo is Italian and translates roughly to “the third”. The name represents the perception of a third presens that sometimes made itself known in the most creative moments of the darkwave/drone/shoegaze duo. Karl Clinton (former bass player of cult post-punk act Diskoteket, co-founder of improvisational project Tsantsa) and Billie Lindahl (lead singer & guitarist of dream pop/dark folk act Promise and the Monster) makes up this enticing new constellation, born from their mutual love for doom and gloom, gothic rock, folk and medieval music. More than that, Terzo is described as a statement and a craving to break free from the pressure and frame-work of todays music industry and society. The duo tells us: “Terzo was born out of a discussion about songs we mutually liked and a lust to try a different work process than in our then current projects, to do whatever we wanted without restrictions - with obsession and gut feeling as guidance.”

The two artist’s shared preference for music and art that embodies some degree of darkness, is tangible through the theme of ‘love & death’ that seeps through their upcoming self titled debut album - ‘Terzo’. The first recordings took place at the locally legendary adress Grantivägen 15B - a two room apartment and studio in Eriksberg, Uppsala. Here, the duo created what would become thier upcoming debut single 'Cymbeline'. The just shy of 11 minute long track has an undeniably entrancing quality to its droning soundscape. A foray of broken and distorted electric guitars, embedded in thick layers of heavy synths and drums, is laid out as the perfect foundation for Billie’s chime-like vocals that reverberates all through the cinematic production with foreboding clarity.

There is something bordering on occult hiding within the grinding whir of sounds. Something that, when listening to the duo's description of their creative process, might have slipped in unbidden. In the midst of their creative spur the duo had sensed a third presence keeping them company, and was very intrigued by the thought. “We started talking about the appearance of a third element, in sleep and in dreams. Terzo is about acknowledging this third element, the swirl that light and darkness generates, opening ourselves toward our own weakness.”

Last summer Terzo journeyed to New York to play gigs at underground clubs, bringing with them the niche video photographer Johan Lundsten to capture their trip in an intimate video documentation that later would become the founding pillars of their two upcoming music videos.