The Caretaker, aka Leyland Kirby, has shared stage five of his colossal project Everywhere At The End Of Time, which began in 2016. You can order it on vinyl here.
Each ‘stage’ of the project is designed to roughly mirror the stages of developing dementia. This new part is the second of the ‘post-awareness’ phases, one of ‘confusion and horror’, as explained on Kirby’s Bandcamp: "More extreme entanglements, repetition and rupture can give way to calmer moments. The unfamiliar may sound and feel familiar. Time is often spent only in the moment leading to isolation."
A press release expands: "It feels as though our skull is being scraped out, uncovering hellish layers of accreted sensation and mulched imagery, occasionally recognising calmer patterns, only for them to fray into the ether before it’s possible to parse and dwell on them."
Also notable is the way Kirby’s project has mirrored the progress of Brexit. "Both started in 2016 and are due to wrap up in spring 2019. It should be no stretch of the imagination to read into their parallel progression from nostalgia and historic/collective amnesia, to progressive dementia and complete obliteration of (the) sense(s)," the press release continues.
It follows stage four, which appeared earlier this year. As material surrounding the release describes it: "Each stage will reveal new points of progression, loss and disintegration. Progressively falling further and further towards the abyss of complete memory loss and nothingness."
The sixth and final part of the project is due out in March 2019, and "may be without description."
You can hear everything released so far and purchase it on The Caretaker’s Bandcamp here. You can also purchase Stages 1-3 on CD here.
At the outset of the work, Kirby spoke in depth with tQ’s John Doran about the huge project over a game of darts. Read that here.
