Gling-Gló

by

Björk and Trió Guðmundar Ingólfssonar

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Gling-Gló, released in 1990, is the only album by Björk Guðmundsdóttir & Tríó Guðmundar Ingólfssonar, consisting of Björk Guðmundsdóttir on vocals, Guðmundur Ingólfsson on piano, Guðmundur Steingrímsson on drums, and Þórður Högnason on bass. Gling-Gló is an Icelandic onomatopoeia whose English equivalent is "Ding Dong," or the sound that a bell makes.

This album was recorded on September 1 and September 3, 1990 at Stúdio Sýrland. It was produced by Tómas Magnús Tómasson, the bassist of Stuðmenn, who also did the mix for this album.

Gling-Gló contains Icelandic themes, and most of the songs are sung in Icelandic. There are also five versions of English language songs by other artists: “Ruby Baby,” by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and the jazz standard “I Can’t Help Loving That Man”, by Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern; and in Icelandic “Það Sést Ekki Sætari Mey”, which means in English “There Is No Sweeter Girl”, and is misattributed in the album notes and on the CD as having been written by "Rogers/Hammerstein", but is in reality a completely reworded cover of "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" by Irving Berlin from the famous musical Annie Get Your Gun. There is also the Icelandic version of Sway, Í Dansi með Þér. Additionally, "Bílavísur" is a reworked rendition of "The Blacksmith Blues," first performed by Ella Mae Morse. "Ég veit ei hvað skal segja" is also a reworked rendition of "Ricochet Romance", performed by the likes of June Carter Cash. The title "Pabbi minn" is an Icelandic version of "O Mein Papa".