The Caretaker - Everywhere At The End of Time (2016-2019)

[Bobby Barrows]

Everywhere At The End of Time
The Caretaker

Who is The Caretaker?

The Caretaker is the name for English Electronic Musician Leyland James Kirby (born May 9th, 1974). Kirby used the name for his project which consists of ballroom music and ambient noise. Leyland mentions that his inspiration comes from the ballroom scene in "The Shining", from 1980. Utilizing manipulated samples of ballroom music from the 1930s, The Caretaker officially culminated in his magnum opus, "Everywhere At The End of Time".

What is "Everywhere At The End of Time"?

"Everywhere at the End of Time" is a series of albums released between 2016 and 2019 by The Caretaker. The purpose of these albums is to highlight the process in which one goes while suffering Dementia. Deeply atmospheric, haunting, and goes slowly into the descent into the horrific reality of not being able to recognize once-familiar things, even one's own place in the world, and even their own face. Much of the work of The Caretaker is derived from the art of 20th-century artist William Utermohlen, diagnosed with Dementia in 1995. In 1996, he took to creating a self-portrait once every year to display the horror of losing "oneself".

Everywhere at the End of Time has 6 stages, each with its own style and flair, but ever-present is the creation of static, white noise, and industrial sounds that cause a horrifying and poignantly depressing mood. The albums together are 6 hours long, with each approximately an hour long. For reference, let us go through each stage to give a simple idea of what each is like.


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STAGE 1:

"Here we experience the first signs of memory loss. This stage is most like a beautiful daydream. The glory of old age and recollection. The last of the great days." The memories are there; they're somewhat lucid, and we're able to still hear most of it. However, the first stages of dementia have taken in, white noise and vinyl filter overlaid through most of the tracks. We can still remember what the songs sound like, but it is beginning to be a struggle to remember each note and each chord progression through the noise.

STAGE 2:

"The second stage is the self-realization and awareness that something is wrong with a refusal to accept that. More effort is made to remember so memories can be more long-form with a little more deterioration in quality. The overall personal mood is generally lower than the first stage and at a point before confusion starts setting in." The songs grow more static, chord progressions feel wrong, something is wrong. Something is terribly wrong. But you're not sure what. All you know is that something is not right, but you have to fight that feeling; it is the beginning of a losing battle that you cannot, and will not win. Songs feel more distant, unfamiliar, but the memories are there. Static and noise grow more and more over time, the noise begins to win...

STAGE 3:

"Here we are presented with some of the last coherent memories before confusion fully rolls in and the grey mists form and fade away. The finest moments have been remembered, the musical flow in places is more confused and tangled. As we progress some singular memories become more disturbed, isolated, broken, and distant. These are the last embers of awareness before we enter the post awareness stages." The noise is winning. Memories are fleeting, singular, and no longer complete. What is happening to these memories? Why is everything so unfamiliar? A reverb and distortion effect is added to each song to create the horrible feeling of tension, fear, and uneasiness within the listener. It is here that the struggle to remember is being overtaken by the slow acceptance that the noise is all that there is. The fight for the last of your memories is failing, and everything is now confusing, jumbled, and incoherent. Post-Awareness is setting in...

STAGE 4:

"Post-Awareness Stage 4 is where serenity and the ability to recall singular memories give way to confusions and horror. It's the beginning of an eventual process where all memories begin to become more fluid through entanglements, repetition, and rupture." There is nothing but noise. The memories are gone, everything is a mess. All you hear is noise. You don't know what's what? Is that a trumpet, is that a violin? What is that noise? It is here where memories are jumbled together, nothing is rememberable, and the confusion slowly starts to make way for the noise to become commonplace. Sometimes memories are there but for seconds, and sometimes they are gone for hours, weeks, days... the horrible reality is that nothing can be remembered.

STAGE 5:

"Post-Awareness Stage 5 confusions and horror. More extreme entanglements, repetition, and rupture can give way to calmer moments. The unfamiliar may sound and feel familiar. Time is often spent only at the moment leading to isolation." Isolation has set in. The confusion of the unfamiliar now is the new normal. Even for the few fleeting moments where it is calm, there will never be a return of those memories. New memories cannot be made, and old ones are gone forever. It is truly the point of no return.

STAGE 6:

"Post-Awareness Stage 6 is without description." Stage 6 is the end. The final, fleeting acceptance that there are no memories. The jumbled mess of noise is now nothing but white. There are no struggles to remember, no horrors of learning you can't remember. There is simply nothing. There is but the continued existence in a world where your place has been lost. In the final five minutes of the album, the last fleeting memory is finally revealed. It is Terminal Lucidity, the point at which someone remembers their last memory before finally passing away... and then, there is no noise, no music, no sounds. A minute of silence for those who have lost their place in the world. Both mentally and physically. A tribute to those who have died without their memories. The struggles of 50 million people will inevitably end in this stage. It is a haunting and legitimately saddening journey through the decay and defeat of the mind through the disease of Dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

This thread was created to create awareness of the reality that many people go through, so that we may understand that they cannot help what they become, because they cannot remember what they once were. Continue to give your love to family members in suffering, and though they may forget, don't let yourself forget their struggle to still be your loved one.

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