By Carlos Nazario
It is hard to imagine a life without memories and awareness of one’s surroundings.
Whether a specific memory is connected to retaining information for a test, a tragic event that needs to be restated for a legal case, or a momentous occasion – let’s say a specific achievement, graduation, marriage, or childbirth. Without a doubt, our lives will feel incomplete without remembrance. While watching “Iceberg Explained” videos on Youtube, I stumbled across an intriguing video about a project created by an experimental artist named Leyland Kirby, who goes under the pseudonym “The Caretaker.” Kirby explores themes of nostalgia, memory, and mental illness, notably dementia or schizophrenia through music. The project is called “Everywhere at the End of Time” and it is a six-hour-long album trajectory that consists of ballroom music from the 1920s to 1940s.
The instruments played throughout the album include the piano, saxophone, trumpet, and clarinet. The eerie undertone and notable static (which sounds like the groove of a vinyl record player) increases every time a new track begins. It emphasizes a sort of clouding of consciousness and the beginning of a form of deterioration. “Everywhere at the End of Time” took three years to complete, and was released as six separate LP’s (or stages) from 2016 to 2019.
I couldn’t help but notice the intriguing album covers that were created by English artist, Ivan Seal, who has worked with Leyland Kirby in other projects such as 2011’s “An Empty Bliss Beyond This World.” Their abstractness and monochromatic blue color schemes are heavily reminiscent of William Utermohlen’s Self Portraits and Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period paintings.
Stage 1 shows an art piece called Beaten Frown After. It looks like a rolled-up sheet of paper that is crumbled up, I believe it resembles a vivid memory with some defects. Stage 2 shows an art piece called Pittor Pickgown in Khatheinstersper. It depicts a deteriorating vase with its wilting flowers. I believe it emphasizes the patient’s brain activity slowly declining. Stage 3 shows an art piece called Hag. It resembles both a flower vase or a nexus of neurons inside the brain. Stage 4 shows an art piece called Giltsholder. Ivan Seal seems to depict a woman painted in hues of blue and green, perhaps to draw a connection between the melancholic state of the patient and the suffering that family members are feeling. Stage 5 shows an art piece called Eptitranxisticemestionscers. I believe it’s Ivan Seal’s most abstract artwork out of the six, I cannot wrap my head around it. The silhouette of the woman vaguely resembles Marie Antoinette going down a staircase. Lastly, stage 6 shows an art piece called Necrotomigaud. It seems to be the back of a canvas, with tape attached. I noticed that the name contains “necro” which has a connotation to death and “gaud” which is a synonym for an ornament.
I begin to question why Leyland Kirby would attach such artwork. Is it possible that the art symbolizes how a person with dementia or Alzheimers sees, thinks, and feels the world around them, in fragments? I am in awe of the album’s complexity, it has made me as a listener more aware and grateful of my everyday surroundings, as well as to empathize and view the world in a totally different way!
Listen on Youtube:
The Caretaker – “Everywhere At The End of Time – Stages 1-6 (Complete)”
Read Other People’s Thoughts:
Reddit – “The Caretaker ‘Everywhere At The End of Time” Is A Horrifying Musical Portrayal For What It Is Like To Undergo Dementia.”