Everywhere at the End of Time

Plague von Karma

Banned deucer.
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Take care, it's a desert out there...​

I debated making this a Cong thread, but it seems a bit too specialised. Everywhere at the End of Time is a series of 6 albums by The Caretaker, also known as Leyland Kirby. It's a musical representation of dementia - specifically Alzheimer's Disease - created using samples of old ballroom music. It's become a bit of a trend for YouTubers to do video reactions, as it can be a surreal and eye-opening experience. Each album represents a "stage", with its own associated artwork by Ivan Seal. The artwork is meant to be something you can sort of grasp, but it always feels just a bit distant. Some people have even made tributes to this album themselves, such as Everywhere in the Beginning of Nowhere, a representation of someone's grandmother's dementia.

I first listened to the series of albums - all 6 hours in one sitting, without any interaction outside of a Discord channel where I logged my feelings - a few months ago. Since then, it's kind of enthralled me. I won't lie, I have a feeling my mom may have dementia, and I suppose this album has brought me just a touch closer to understanding just how horrible the disease is. I eventually got into more of The Caretaker's work and found the ambience really nice to listen to sometimes. It's very long, so it tends to cover my entire online sessions.

If anyone is interested in hearing it themselves, here's the full compilation of the album series, uploaded officially;

I also have a playlist on my YouTube channel where I added a "Stage 0" featuring some of the samples, as well as "Take Care, it's a Desert out there..." and "An Empty Bliss Beyond This World", which are sometimes thought to be related. You can find vmtest, the record label run by Leyland Kirby, here. Support them on Bandcamp and Boomkat too.

So, has anyone else listened to this series? It's crazy, there's so much you can talk about...the hell sirens, the mandolin solo...lord.
 
do you think its all early/mid 20th century music because thats the music of the youth of the people who are mainly now suffering from dementia, and follow up question, do you think in 80-90 years time there will be a similar phenomenon with slowed down versions of Wet Ass Pussy
 
Ive listened to it quite a few times, but the part that strikes me the hardest are the names of each individual songs. Shit like "We don't have many days", "The loves of my entire life", "What does it matter how my heart breaks", "The way ahead feels lonely", "An empty bliss beyond this World" really capture the feeling of the album. Anyway, I've had a couple of family members suffer from dementia. Shit sucks and its a really scary way to go, so maybe its not surprising how effectively this album can sink me into the existential dread.
 
I've listened through this album twice now, once as my first impression and a second to comb over notable moments within it. The samples and pieces in this album started off real and tangible, yet still incoherent if a little unnerving. As it progressed and the static and reverb began to overtake the actual compositions, it really felt like I was growing an old, decrepit, fucked up psyche as what seemed familiar and comfortable slowly became more distant and cloudy, and feelings of intrigue and nostalgic wonder turned to adrenaline-inducing horror. Moments in this album where peaceful compositions become momentarily twisted and distorted, and vice versa, are sprinkled all throughout and it really kept me on edge for the entire listen. Notable moments throughout these compositions include:

- The motif of heartaches playing throughout later stages, even distorted in the wind of the more noise-like tracks
- Tracks seemingly cutting off early and leading to stranger and less focused pieces in stages 2 and 3
- The fucking sirens in stage 4
- The last 40 minutes of stage 6 which leads into the finale. It really felt like the end of a long and horrific descent as it felt far more serene than the rest of the last couple hours of the album

I am not in the best mental state right now due to personal reasons and obligations and that might've made the journey that much more terrifying to me. I'm not aware of anyone in my family suffering from dementia, but I've met people with it when I went to a ward a year and a half ago. The idea of the mind decaying and fading away before death is so incomprehensible and abstract and seeing it conveyed so eloquently is genuinely terrifying. Dementia is a truly terrible disease and I hope in our lifetime we can work towards feasible solutions, whether that's a cure or otherwise.
 
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yo, i listened to this album a while back. being honest it was an incredibly unpleasant experience, with these types of ambient music i try to put them on in the background while im doing something else, but that kind of doesn't really work for everywhere at the end of time. it's not relaxing or consistent in any way, it's just a chaotic mess. i remember being in a terrible mood even though nothing bad happened, i was just listening to this for too long at once.

i still think it's really good as a piece of art and im glad it was made, though.
 
Was reminded of this today and finally sat down to take a hearing. It was quite incredible, and very, very well made. The static in the background is like the fuzz of old age, and also a reminder of older times, a last memory before the static starts getting louder and it becomes more frightening than comfortable.

I got about 20 minutes in before the drilling started at the neighbour's house's renovation. I tried to listen for about 20 minutes more before giving up and bookmarking the time to watch at a later date. I'll reply to this thread if I manage to finish the 6 hours of music.
 
mf said:
do you think its all early/mid 20th century music because thats the music of the youth of the people who are mainly now suffering from dementia, and follow up question, do you think in 80-90 years time there will be a similar phenomenon with slowed down versions of Wet Ass Pussy
Click to expand...
I can't wait for dementiacore Gangnam Style
 
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