The End: Why Do You Mourn

Why Do You Mourn is the third release by the Swedish/Norwegian group The End. Ethiopian-born Swedish vocalist Sofia Jernberg is backed by the double reedists Mats Gustafsson (The Thing, Fire! and Fire! Orchestra) and Kjetil Møster (Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra, Møster!, and Zanussi Five), plus guitarist Anders Hana (Circulasione Totale Orchestra) and drummer Børge Fjordheim. It follows two releases on the RareNoise Records label, Allt Är Intet (2020) and Svårmod Och Vemod Är Värdesinnen (2018).

The sounds resemble the music genre favored by Don Cherry during his years in Sweden. It is world music, but one that claims no specific country of origin, nor for that matter, genre. The End fluctuates between folk, free jazz, hardcore, poetry and jazz rock. "Snow," the longest track on the album at 13+ minutes opens the disc with sung/spoken poetry interwoven by saxophone freak-outs and thunderous bass guitar and drums. The song gives way to squawks and screams until the storm subsides and a return to gentle passages of prose. "Doomfunk MCs" skates on edges, on Møster's saxophone, Hana's guitar, and Jernberg's voice as the band marches triumphantly through the track. "Wasted Blame" and "Whose Face" by Gustafsson are influenced by the poetry of Robert Creeley. Here the band also pulls from the heavy sounds of Black Sabbath, tempered by the very lovely voice of Jernberg. "Winter Doesn't End" by Rigmor Gustafsson is presented as a simple acoustic folk tune where Jernberg is accompanied by guitar, flute, clarinet and drum. In the same vein "Smokey Black" with its gentle recitation of various versions of the color black. The summation of the entire affair is the otherworldly and eerie "Black Vivaldi Sonata" with Jernberg singing "I don't care if we start a war in heaven, who really needs to be rescued?" Hopefully, this is a rhetorical question.