The exquisite voice of Karin Glenmark

There is no known website for Karin Glenmark.   Although there is evidence that she is quite gracious to her fans, she also seems to successfully guard her privacy.  She is fluent in English.

You can read about her at the Gemini website.

Karin is discussed in the Geminisection of ABBA AERIE pages.

Karin sings distinctive and recognizable backing vocals on a great number of her brother's recordings. Some of these are quite reminiscent of Gemini.

Karin performed in B & B's Chess, both as a member of the chorus and as Florence.

Karin sings backup vocals on Frida's Alska Mig Alltid and Lugna Vatten on the Djupa Andetag album (1996).

Karin is one of the four featured voices for the B & B homage concerts in Gothenburg, Stockholm, and in China (1998 and 1999).

Eponymous album: "Karin Glenmark", 1996

This CD is a collection of ballads. The arrangements avoid overpowering the voice, which is quite pure. Those expecting the vocal gymnastics heard in "Geminism" will be disappointed. All cuts are in Swedish. Mattias Olsson, of ABBAmail, told me that Jaques Werup, the lyricist for all of the songs, is a poet. The eleven tracks are:

När livet är gott
Tysta natt
Viska mitt namn
Ett par vykort
Länge, länge än
I höstens ljus
Låtsasliv
Jag tände ljusen
För alltid
Otro
Visst On a first listen, "Viska mitt namn" is the most catchy and commercial, featuring a steady pop beat, electric guitar lead and an overall thicker, heavier production. Karin's voice is overdubbed in the chorus, to good effect. This was released as a single (still available), although it apparently did not chart.

Admittedly, my own taste runs toward lush and heavy arrangements of the wall-of-sound variety, whether Spector, Wilson, or Andersson/Ulvaeus, and these are notoriously absent. But several of these soft tracks have grown on me. In "Tysta natt," Karin's hypnotic repetition of 'kärlek' has, by the end of the song, entranced me. In "Otro," against the simplest of acoustic guitar accompaniments, Glenmark quietly succeeds in projecting high emotion to even a listener who can understand only a few words. "Jag tände ljusen" succeeds with a faintly country-western character.

The melodies of a few of these songs, all by Michael Saxell, are nearly indistinguishable, and are mindful of Gamble and Huff. The alliteration and consoling cadences are evident even to those ignorant of Swedish.

Most recently, Karin has been performing in the B & B tribute concerts, also voiced by Helen Sjöholm, Anders Glenmark, and Tommy Körberg.

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