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Thursday, April 20, 2023

TERZO and the drone / darkwave alternate universe of "Eve Seven" (Official Video)

 

"Oh the Holidays are cruel / makes her high, feel pretty cool / Makes her lying on the sand / You just wanna hold her hand / Feed her oranges from school, that’s all..."


In the darkly dense "Eve Seven" notes don't just hang in the air but seem to freeze there instead or maybe that is just the imagery in my brain. The creators of this evocative darkwave noir is the Stockholm / New York based TERZO, the duo of 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). There is a sense of foreboding, a detective mystery going on in a time that is not defined. The duo's use of droning sonics, tribal machine beats, ethereal off setting beautifully bent notes and shoegaze-esque vocals courtesy of Billie that feels like baroque pop skewing darker. The tentacles into a sound that feels somehow in a universe between 80's retro and the future, the collision of the two makes sense given that "Eve Seven" is inspired by The X-Files. A soaring sax even rears it's sultry head and I couldn't help but feel a pastel shade of Crockett and Tubbs cast in a purple light. 

The Official Video is an added treat with Karl and Billie as a version of Mulder and Scully investigating strange things. "Eve Seven" is from the duo's self titled debut album "TERZO" and as press notes reveal there is a theme of "love & death" that permeates the project.

[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 their upcoming debut single 'Cymbeline' and later their second single 'Eve Seven'. There is undeniably an entrancing quality to TERZO's droning soundscapes. 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 bewitching vocals that reverberates all through the cinematic productions.]   

“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.” - Billie and Karl

"In the assembly Eve always say that,
She can’t hide from the other Eves,
She can’t hide."

-Robb Donker Curtius



https://www.facebook.com/terzoiii/


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 their upcoming debut single 'Cymbeline' and later their new single 'Eve Seven'. There is undeniably an entrancing quality to TERZOs droning soundscapes. 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 bewitching vocals that reverberates all through the cinematic production with foreboding clarity. "We wanted to make a song with similar chords like Lambada, which is a song we both like a lot." says Billie, "So to that we added a bit of guitars and a lyric theme from an X-files episode about seven cloned eves."


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 music videos for 'Cymbeline' and 'Eve Seven'. Billie goes on to tell us: "The main inspiration for the video was X-files and the movie Lost Boys. We did 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”.


'Eve Seven' will be released via the Stockholm based Boutique label Icons Creating Evil Art, streamable on all major platforms on March 24th, 2023.




TERZO, gothic darkwave, shoegaze, dream pop, alt rock, post punk, "Eve Seven" (Official Video), Stockholm, Sweden, New York, duo of Karl Clinton and Billie Lindahl,

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