William Utermalen (self portraits)
Everywhere at the End of Time[a] is the eleventh recording by the Caretaker, an alias of English electronic musician Leyland Kirby. Released between 2016 and 2019, its six studio albums use degrading loops of sampled ballroom music to portray the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Inspired by the success of An Empty Bliss Beyond This World (2011), Kirby produced Everywhere as his final major work under the alias. The albums were produced in Krakow and released over six-month periods to "give a sense of time passing", with abstract album covers by his friend Ivan Seal. The series drew comparisons to the works of composer William Basinski and electronic musician Burial, while the later stages were influenced by avant-gardist composer John Cage.
The series comprises six hours of music, portraying a range of emotions and characterised by noise throughout. Although the first three stages are similar to An Empty Bliss, the last three depart from Kirby's earlier ambient works. The albums reflect the patient's disorder and death, their feelings, and the phenomenon of terminal lucidity. To promote the series, anonymous visual artist Weirdcore created music videos for the first two stages. At first, concerned about whether the series would seem pretentious, Kirby thought of not creating Everywhere at all; he spent more time producing it than any of his other releases. The album covers received attention from a French art exhibition named after the Caretaker's Everywhere, an Empty Bliss (2019), a compilation of archived songs.
As each stage was released, the series received increasingly positive reviews from critics; its length and dementia-driven concept led many reviewers to feel emotional about the complete edition. Considered to be Kirby's magnum opus, Everywhere was one of the most praised music releases of the 2010s. Caregivers of people with dementia also praised the albums for increasing empathy for patients among younger listeners, although some medics felt the series was too linear. It became an Internet phenomenon in the early 2020s, emerging in TikTok videos as a listening challenge, being transformed into a mod for the video game Friday Night Funkin' (2020), and appearing in internet memes.
The series comprises six hours of music, portraying a range of emotions and characterised by noise throughout. Although the first three stages are similar to An Empty Bliss, the last three depart from Kirby's earlier ambient works. The albums reflect the patient's disorder and death, their feelings, and the phenomenon of terminal lucidity. To promote the series, anonymous visual artist Weirdcore created music videos for the first two stages. At first, concerned about whether the series would seem pretentious, Kirby thought of not creating Everywhere at all; he spent more time producing it than any of his other releases. The album covers received attention from a French art exhibition named after the Caretaker's Everywhere, an Empty Bliss (2019), a compilation of archived songs.
As each stage was released, the series received increasingly positive reviews from critics; its length and dementia-driven concept led many reviewers to feel emotional about the complete edition. Considered to be Kirby's magnum opus, Everywhere was one of the most praised music releases of the 2010s. Caregivers of people with dementia also praised the albums for increasing empathy for patients among younger listeners, although some medics felt the series was too linear. It became an Internet phenomenon in the early 2020s, emerging in TikTok videos as a listening challenge, being transformed into a mod for the video game Friday Night Funkin' (2020), and appearing in internet memes.
22 comments:
Does Alzheimer's run in your family, FJ? I used to work at small hospital with a significant number of dementia patients. One of the saddest places I've seen. But it doesn't have to be that way. My problem is that I can't leave work at work soI couldn't stay in that facility for very long.
Regarding the artwork:. The visual imagery is as disturbing to me as the music. I watched the entire first video with the discussion about the series of albums, and even listening to him discuss the pieces was disturbing. No way I could listen to the actual albums.
No, no autism in my family that I'm aware of. I got onto this topic thinking about "civilizational autism", not the kind experienced by individuals, to describe what we seem to be going through.
And I listened to the 6+ hour music last night as I slept. I find this topic fascinating. I was turned onto it by this Byung-Chul Han article...
Again, the palliative against the nihilism of this culture of the end is hypernothingness.
A one-minute-long silence predates the end of The Caretaker’s album series Everywhere at the End of Time (2016–2019), partly dedicated to the memory of Mark Fisher, who disappeared in 2017. “The inability to distinguish the present from the past” (Mark Fisher’s words about The Caretaker’s sound-theory), produced by the remix and disfiguration of recordings from a long-forgotten past, now leaves space to hypernothingness.
But hypernothingness does not simply signify the end: it creates the end. In it, plenitude is abolished. The melancholia and nostalgia describing the recording fade away at last. Throughout this minute of hypernothingness, indifference is slowly converted into the atmosphere of the end itself.
There are no more sounds but wafts of nothingness.
The simulation of silence, rather than drawing the music to a close, further opens up a space for sleep and the ataraxy of the end. Boredom at the end of time. The hypernothingness of silence abolishes the difference between the representation of nothingness and nothingness itself, between deep listening and deep boredom.
Ah, the ennui... ;)
...reaching the end of the Alzheimer road, no regrets, no memories to hold regrets.
:P
I'm trying to figure out what I should do with myself once I retire, what kind of project I should embark upon. I found this project (The Caretaker) inspirational. Perhaps I'll embark upon some other aspect of mental illness, and attempt to expand upon it in some artistic way. It's food for thought.... at least, so long as my mind is capable of processing thoughts. And hopefully, that will be a long, long time. :)
In the meantime, maybe I should consider trying a little house-sitting... ;P
Did I say autism above? I meant Alzheimers....
You fell asleep while listening to the albums?! That's a guaranteed nightmare in the making for me.
In fact, if I fall asleep listening to/watching anything the least bit unpleasant, it leads to nightmares. Even the time of day or night that I sleep will increase the chance of a nightmare.
Anyway...
How far away is your retirement?
9/1/23...
Yes, I'm looking forward to the time when I no longer must concern myself with problems not of my own making... to the greatest extent possible, anyways. Without the omnipresent specter of work ever haunting the back corners of my mind.
I was watching some videos today and trying to piece them together with some more recent thoughts...
...Ease of Mechanical Reproduction Moves Art out of the Sphere of Authenticity of the "original" and thereby Murders the Aura of 'Ritual'. The audience becomes "democratized" through "copies" and every "lay" viewer is elevated through the "director's camerawork" to status of 'expert". The mass viewing experience becomes socialized through the socialization of the media (display in the theatre), and visa versa, the individual also socially conditioned to react in anticipation of a group social/ mass reaction.
It shifts the "cult value" of an Art form into an "exhibition value" in new media and thereby transforms "authenticity" into "profile-ism", imposing an "exhibition anxiety" upon the participatory mass audience members that leads to Byung-Chul Han's Burn-out Society under capitalism.
I need to figure out a way to get myself back into a "cult" (culture) of "High Art". Our society raves Authenticity, demands an "ethic of authenticity... but every step we seem to take towards it, moves it farther and farther away...moving away from authenticity towards pure "appearances" of profile-icity... as we put ourselves on-line and thereby bring on a sense of "exhibition anxiety".... each looking to establish a "brand" that is pretty much the same as everyone else's as the negativity of "the other" gives way to the positivity of "the same".
I want give art back its' "aura"... the author back his relevance to his books.... bring back the "high" in what was once "high culture"... or at least have some fun thinking about it.
...find my Dasein... undistracted.
Meanwhile, in the Alzheimer world.. Leqembi?
Sounds lovely. I hope you succeed!
It's progress, but I don't know how well a "25% reduction in progression of symptoms" translates in real life. It's progress, though, and that's a good thing. I really like the blood tests for earlier detection! But ... What does one do with the knowledge that they have early-onset Alzheimer's with no cure in sight? It's such a cruel disease.
OT- did you happen to catch Kevin McCarthy taking to the press today? I'm feeling hopeful about him!
No, I missed it. I think I've given up on the idea of politics leading to any constructive change for the better. Its' become such a sh*tshow. But hey, don't let my cynicism bring you down.
:)
Oh it's a complete circus at this point..I fear we've crossed a line and can't go back.
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