Everywhere at the End of Time

Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 1
Studio album by the Caretaker
Released	22 September 2016 (2016 -09-22)
Genre	Ambient avant-garde big band electronic hauntology jazz modern classical plunderphonics
Length	41:31
The Caretaker chronology
Patience (After Sebald) (2012) Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 1 (2016) Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 2 (2017)

"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."

— Leyland Kirby[16]

Like An Empty Bliss Beyond This World, Stage 1 consists of the first seconds from several 78-rpm jazz records from the 1920s to the 1940s slowed down and played in loop for long periods of time, being mostly composed of snippets of ballroom music repeated ad nauseam.[17] This stage presents twelve tracks, with six tracks occupying vinyl sides A and B.[18] The music is surrounded by a subtle static background noise.[19] As the first stage of the entire project, it is the lightest stage despite its typically looped composition, due to being early on in the dementia process.[18] Most of the tracks present an upbeat and positive style, with only a few taking on a slower pace.[20] The only methods of alteration Kirby makes to the samples are adding reverberation and looping sections to create longer pieces, as well as emphasizing the existing vinyl crackle in the mix. In making the first stage, Kirby described the mastering, as done by LUPO, to be "really rich, really big, really consistent sounding all the way through".[14] Track titles from this stage also suggest a comforting sense, with names such as "Late afternoon drifting," "Childishly fresh eyes," and "The loves of my entire life."[15]

Kirby described the opening track, numbered as track A1 and titled "It's just a burning memory," as very upbeat, "nice and really warm."[14] Track A2, "We don't have many days," samples a cover of "Say It Isn't So" by Layton & Johnstone, which has caused some writers to describe the stage as "a surreal version of Name That Tune."[21] Track A4, "Childishly fresh eyes," has been described as suggesting "barely remembered muzak, and is superficially soothing."[21] While Pat Beane from Tiny Mix Tapes wrote that the repeating brass lines of track A4 have a "splendor" to it, they were "unsteady" when combined with the piano presented on track A5, "Slightly bewildered,"[22] a track also described by Brian Howe from Pitchfork as presenting an "almost toneless mooing;"[23] the track presents a pianist performing but "just not getting it right," which makes it, as wrote by Pat Padua from Spectrum Culture, "mildly disorienting."[21] Howe from Pitchfork, however, praised the "inner humming voice" from track A6, "Things that are beautiful and transient."[23] Songs from Side B, such as track B2, "An autumnal equinox," and track B4, "The loves of my entire life," have been described by Howe as possessing "a winning gentleness."[23] However, the writer adds that by the end, "even gentleness has taken on a desperate tinge, as though if the dancing stops, everyone dies."[23] The record ends with, as described by Beane, "melodramatic swells" found on track B6, "My heart will stop in joy," which ends the album with an echoing horn section that some writers described by Padua as having a sound similar to "the pinnacle of big band ballroom romance."[21][22]

The album cover is titled Beaten Frowns After.[24] It depicts a stationary unraveling grey paper scroll resting on a blue gradient horizon.[25] Pat Beane likened the object to the creases of the brain, adding it "seems petrified as a statue, stuck in the pose of discomposure, without revealing anything of its history," and that its simpleness forebodes the tracks of the album, considered "brilliant" by him.[22] Sydney Leahy from The Blue & Gold stated the artwork could have been chosen to depict the patient's knowledge that, "as the disease evolves, their ability to remember recent events may become completely dysfunctional."[25]

Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 2
Studio album by the Caretaker
Released	6 April 2017 (2017 -04-06)
Genre	Ambient avant-garde big band drone electronic hauntology jazz modern classical plunderphonics
Length	41:55
The Caretaker chronology
Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 1 (2016) Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 2 (2017) Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 3 (2017)

"The second stage is the self realisation 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."

— Leyland Kirby[16]

Stage 2 shifts its focus to the denial/acceptance of the disease by the patient.[20] This stage presents ten tracks, with five tracks occupying vinyl sides C and D.[26] It presents a much more melancholic tone, featuring a more distant style of music.[20][27] Its track titles present more somber themes as well, with names such as "Surrendering to despair," "Quiet dusk coming early," and "The way ahead feels lonely."[28] The music in this stage is much less direct, with some of the tracks being thought by some writers as having a light use of field recordings complementing the sampled songs.[20] In an interview with The Quietus, Kirby described the "switch" between the first and second album, specifically noting that instead of looping short sections of sampled material as with the first stage, he would let tracks play in full while stripping certain sections away, not necessarily making them composed of only small loops.[14]

The opening track of Stage 2, "A losing battle is raging," features a more drone-inspired style which has been compared by Holly Hazelwood from Spectrum Culture to the music of Boards of Canada, with the writer adding that its sound, instead of conveying gentleness, is "cloaked in heavy sorrow;"[15] the song has been described by Boomkat as having a "fading beauty" to it.[28] Track C3, "What does it matter how my heart breaks," features the same sample as "It's just a burning memory,"[29] The track uses the Seger Ellis cover of the original song, which in this stage has been described as "plagued with lethargy."[15][30] On Boomkat's product review for Stage 2, track C4, "Glimpses of hope in trying times," has been described as presenting a more tense style, before track D1, "I still feel though as I am me," basks in "glowing embers" that turn to track D2, "Quiet dusk coming early."[28] Track D3, "Last moments of pure recall," features a far more upbeat style than other tracks in the album, being described as a "waltzing" bliss by Boomkat.[28] The pair of track D3 with track D4, "Denial unravelling," has been hypothesized to be the patient no longer having the ability to pretend that they are well.[15] Boomkat concluded this further ends with the "unshakeable pangs of sadness" that compose track D5, "The way ahead feels lonely."[28]

The album cover is titled Pittor Pickgown in Khatheinstersper.[31] It depicts an abstract flower pot with four flowers inside. The lower section of the pot features sculptures of two faceless humanoid figures, one male and one female. Frank Falisi from Tiny Mix Tapes wrote that, while the scroll presented in the album art of Stage 1 was a reminder that "the only thing behind our bodies is us," the album cover for Stage 2 is what is presented when the scroll becomes unfurled, adding that "the only things behind our bodies are pretty flowers from a rotten rock."[29]

Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 3
Studio album by the Caretaker
Released	28 September 2017 (2017 -09-28)
Genre	Ambient avant-garde big band dark ambient drone electronic experimental hauntology jazz modern classical plunderphonics
Length	45:36
The Caretaker chronology
Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 2 (2017) Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 3 (2017) Take Care, It's a Desert Out There... (2017)

"Here we are presented with some of the last coherent memories before confusion fully rolls in and the grey mists form and fade away. 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."

— Leyland Kirby[16]

Stage 3 is the final stage in which samples are recognizable as their original melodies. This stage presents sixteen tracks, with eight tracks occupying vinyl sides E and F.[32] This album starts "breaking the songs down," presenting reverberation and static noise over notes.[27] The track titles on Stage 3 are nonsensical rearrangements of the song names from either Stage 2, Stage 1, or An Empty Bliss, a fact hypothesized to be the memories of a patient becoming more and more confused.[30] As an example, track E3, "Hidden sea buried deep," takes its title from "The great hidden sea of the unconscious" and "Bedded deep in long term memory." Some samples from Stage 1 return in this record, although they "sound like they've taken on water."[15] In this album, some of the songs end abruptly, colliding with the ones that follow.[15] This record has been noticed by Kirby as the most similar to his previous project An Empty Bliss Beyond This World, for featuring many samples which have been taken from the entire project's history.[14] The album cover is titled Hag.[33] It is the first artwork in the series to present an unrecognizable object, with Sydney Leahy stating it "appears" to be a kelp.[25]

Track E1, "Back there Benjamin," has been described as "a confused mishmash of chaotic, loud music," which Beach Sloth from Entropy has also noted due to its "bled-dry jaunt."[34] Track E2, "And heart breaks," is the last coherent version of "Heartaches," presenting its element collapsing.[15] The melody of track E6, "Sublime beyond loss," has been hypothesized to be Kirby deliberately confusing it, "letting it become lost, impossible to truly focus [on]."[34] Track E8, "Long term dusk glimpses," has been described by Sloth as the "true heart" of the record, for presenting a melody that seemingly fights the memory loss, "at times becoming defiant against its doomed fate."[34] Side F is made up of much shorter tracks with less amount of their original samples recognizable, which have been described by writer Michael Barnett as the point where Kirby takes "an interesting turn" for featuring a more dark ambient-inspired style on tracks such as F3, "Internal bewildered World."[35] Track F4, "Burning despair does ache," is the last coherent version of "Heartaches," which sounds normal at the beginning but eventually presents glitch effects in its melody.[30] Track F5, "Aching cavern without lucidity," has been described by Barnett as little more than a "droning murky memory" from what the previous tracks presented.[35]

Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 4
Studio album by the Caretaker
Released	5 April 2018 (2018 -04-05)
Genre	Ambient dark ambient drone electronic experimental noise plunderphonics sound collage
Length	87:21
The Caretaker chronology
Take Care, It's a Desert Out There... (2017) Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 4 (2018) Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 5 (2018)

"Post-Awareness Stage 4 is where serenity and the ability to recall singular memories gives 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."

— Leyland Kirby[16]

While the first three stages featured the same style of the Caretaker's previous releases, featuring melodies and repeating structures, the compositional aspects of Stage 4 are more similar to noise.[30][15] It marks the beginning of the Post-Awareness stages, where individual tracks are not short and taken from one sample but rather 20 minutes long and featuring changing sections, occupying whole vinyl sides.[36] In an interview with The Believer, Kirby coined the term "Post-Awareness" as the stages where a patient is unaware of their dementia, a term already known as anosognosia.[12] The tracks occupy whole vinyl sides and present more medical terms; while each track in the first three stages presented a traditional naming system, Stage 4 presents four clinical names on its tracks: three of them (tracks G1, H1, and J1) titled "Post Awareness Confusions" and one of them (track I1) titled "Temporary Bliss State."[37] According to Andrew O'Keefe from No Wave, while coherent melodies are much harder to grasp, they are presented only when it is necessary to provide emotional weight in contrast to the chaos around them, "shedding the mysterious poetry of earlier stages."[38]

The "Post Awareness Confusions" tracks feature distorted snippets of instruments from either the previous stages of the project or from Kirby's previous releases as the Caretaker.[35] A part of them samples Russ Morgan's "Goodnight, My Beautiful" and adds heavy glitch and distortion effects to it, which makes the original sample nearly unrecognizable.[39] According to Miles Bowe from Pitchfork, they capture the "darkest, most damaged" noises of the entire series, either by "dwelling on one ghostly sample" for long periods of time or by "violently accelerating through skipping melodies" which Bowe has compared to Oval's ambient release 94 Diskont.[39] Other writers interpreted the sound of the album as the noise of an AM radio stuck permanently between two different stations.[15] These tracks present an increase in the noticeable static of their sound, re-configuring the Caretaker's signature horn samples into "distorted new shapes" or to their limit.[35][40] According to Sam Goldner from Tiny Mix Tapes, while noise was presented in previous Caretaker releases simply as a background effect, these tracks feature it becoming the music's "primary driving force, pushing the pieces in all directions at once with vivid, cacophonous force."[40]

Tracks G1 and H1 start the album with "an explosion of panic," being described as the "most visceral" of the record.[38] The composition of track H1 is considered to have "an almost unbearable stretch of dark, judgement-day horns."[38] One of the sections in track H1 has been dubbed as the "Hell Sirens" by the Caretaker community, due to it presenting a horn sample distorted to the point where "it sounds like an alarm from the deepest pits of Hell," being considered by listeners as the peak of the series in terms of terror/horror; the segment presents a howling foghorn and wailing sirens that have been described by some commentators as sounding "ike the screams of the damned,"[30] being described by Holly Hazelwood from Spectrum Culture as one of the most horrifying moments in the series.[15] Track J1 presents an abrupt ending that, in the words of Bowe, makes the record "[even] more devastating."[39] Holly Hazelwood from Spectrum Culture analyzed that, due to J1 being presented after track I1, "Temporary Bliss State," it is a way to "punish the subject for having escaped for as long as they did."[15]

The album's tone becomes less melancholic when track I1, "Temporary Bliss State" plays, as the track presents a less distorted sound.[38] While still incoherent, it presents a much less harsh sound when compared to the first two tracks.[35] On the track, Kirby leaves no trace of the ballroom samples that are usually associated with the series but instead warps its source material into, as Bowe wrote, "pure ethereal abstraction;" while the critic stated that the "Confusions" tracks reach "unexplored extremes" for the Caretaker, the "dreamlike" aspects of I1 were described by him as even more disorienting than any of the "Confusions" tracks, yet being "so beautiful it barely sounds like the Caretaker at all."[39] Holly Hazelwood stated that the track is meant to be treasured since, "as the title makes clear, it’s temporary."[15]

The album cover is titled Glitsholder.[24] While the previous artworks mainly presented simple everyday objects, Glitsholder is the first one to depict a human shape, which is seemingly facing away from the observer; Sam Goldner wrote the human form is presented "in the ashes of this dissolution," adding that "from the heart of death, a new life emerges, albeit one whose face we can’t see;" the writer further stated the human in the cover seems to be smiling when looked at from a distance.[40] Sydney Leahy stated Glitsholder is the "saddest, most striking" artwork to her, adding that the cover symbolizes the patient losing the ability to recognize his relatives.[25]

Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 5
Studio album by the Caretaker
Released	20 September 2018 (2018 -09-20)
Genre	Ambient dark ambient drone electronic experimental jazz noise plunderphonics
Length	88:21
The Caretaker chronology
Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 4 (2018) Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 5 (2018) Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 6 (2019)

"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 in the moment leading to isolation."

— Leyland Kirby[16]

Stage 5 further expands its noise and experimental genre influence,[30] featuring a much more aggressive and intense style than its predecessors.[41] This stage presents even more medical terms within its track titles, such as "Advanced plaque entanglements." It is the first stage to prominently present human sounds, such as incomprehensible voices and distorted whistling; while the most part of it is incomprehensible, due to the syllables of the voices being discontinued, some tracks feature a clean use of it, presenting dialogue.[41][38] Some writers described it as the most agonizing stage of the entire project, due to the melody "ceas[ing] to matter," while others stated it presents a bit of all Post-Awareness stages' styles within it, due to its aggressiveness at the beginning, which is associated with Stage 4, and its emptiness at the end, which is associated with Stage 6.[15][38] This stage also presents the largest amount of layers of samples woven together, which makes them, according to Holly Hazelwood, serve no purpose but to pile upon each other, "an auditory traffic jam."[15] James Catchpole stated it represents some of Kirby's "most complex, experimental work."[41] The album cover is titled Eptitranxisticemestionscers Desending.[31] As suggested by its name, it is the most abstract artwork of the entire series; the most accepted hypothesis is that the artwork depicts a highly distorted, vaguely humanoid ballerina descending through a staircase.[30] Holly Hazelwood claimed it presents a "cancerous mass blooming out of a marble staircase," adding it symbolizes the patient's mind being "a remnant of a once-grand world, almost entirely unrecognizable."[15] TV Tropes classified it as being under the "Design Student's Orgasm" trope, describing the artwork as 'very ambiguous.'[30] As Sydney Leahy analyzed, the cover for Stage 5 becomes completely indiscernible.[25]

After approximately 4 minutes from the start of track K1, "Advanced plaque entanglements," the intense noise abruptly cuts out and is replaced with a short big band sample presenting the style usually associated with the first three stages, before abruptly cutting out back to the intense noise usually associated with the fifth stage.[30] After approximately 15 additional minutes, the distorted voice of John Philip Sousa saying "this selection will be a mandolin solo by Mister James Fitzgerald" can be heard, followed by a mandolin sample from "Invincible Eagle March" by James Fitzgerald.[42] While also featuring a relatively calm and clear melody, the mandolin is heavily distorted, due to its original sample being a phonograph cylinder.[30][42] As the record progresses, its style shifts into a more extreme drone style.[30] Track L1, also titled "Advanced plaque entanglements," has been described by Holly Hazelwood as a challenge to the listener to find comfort within the "ambient horror we traverse."[15] Track M1, "Synapse retrogenesis," takes its title from synapses and retrogenesis, a hypothesis that suggests an Alzheimer's patient deals with the reverse neural development an infant goes through,[43] which Hazelwood further described as having an inhumanity to it.[15] Andrew O'Keefe from No Wave stated that the general style of this stage presents a feeling of "misfiring neurones, connections which cannot be made," further hypothesizing that the patient's memories were presented to the listener in the first three stages in order to "erode away" on the Post-Awareness stages.[38] As O'Keefe analyzed, by the end of track N1, "Sudden time regression into isolation," there is "barely a whisper to be heard."[38]

Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 6
Studio album by the Caretaker
Released	14 March 2019 (2019 -03-14)
Genre	Ambient choral drone electronic experimental noise plunderphonics
Length	85:58
The Caretaker chronology
Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 5 (2018) Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 6 (2019) Everywhere, an Empty Bliss (2019)

"Post-Awareness Stage 6 is without description."

— Leyland Kirby[16]

Stage 6 mainly consists of deep static ambient noises, marking more emphasis on the melancholy of the patient rather than the chaos of the brain.[30] While Stages 4 and 5 mainly presented harsh noise, symbolizing the patient's memories falling apart, Stage 6 presents lengthy but empty compositions, which have been described by some users as "emptier than nothingness itself, the sonic embodiment of an almost completely empty mind."[30] Before its release, many listeners feared Stage 6 being a wall of harsh noise, which "areas like RateYourMusic comment boxes have proven records of."[30] It presents no detail whatsoever, which Holly Hazelwood has likened to the movement of a slow glacier.[15] Track titles from Stage 6, such as "A brutal bliss beyond this empty defeat," are less clinical but present more emotional statements.[15] Andrew O'Keefe stated that, although this stage mainly presents a drone style, "almost all talk about this final stage will centre on its shocking, and deeply human, conclusion as we follow the project to its death."[38]

The opening track, "A confusion so thick you forget forgetting," was noticed by Andrew Ryce from Resident Advisor due to presenting "foreboding" drones in its composition,[44] described by The Quietus as a "billowing fog of noise and raining hiss."[45] It does not present any recognizable part of the Caretaker's "established sound," but instead, features a "vast, cavernous, and upsetting" production,[45] described by Frank Falisi from Tiny Mix Tapes as "the void space around spent electric, the hot of last energy."[46] Track P1, "A brutal bliss beyond this empty defeat," was hypothesized by Ryce to be seemingly designed to "drive the listener to madness," due to its composition of repetitive noises and discordant notes;[44] as Falisi hypothesized, it is "the powder after bone ground on bone."[46] The Quietus further described track P1 as an ambient sound that symbolizes panic; while Stages 4 and 5 still featured brief flashes of instruments, P1 presents "echoes of anxiety," an enhancement of the "wholly peculiar and paradoxical nature of what you’re hearing."[45] Track Q1, "Long decline is over," features snatches of music hidden by obfuscating layers of static noise, where the music remains, as Ryce wrote, "frustratingly" out of reach: "at times you can sense it's there, but it's impossible to make out."[44] James Catchpole stated it introduces "an unexpected feeling of sublime peace;" as the writer analyzed, "the big band’s blurred melodies echo down the elongated hallway, calling out and ballooning, growing in volume."[47]

The final track of the album, "Place in the World fades away," presents the same sounds of the entirety of track Q1 on its first 6 minutes.[48] Eventually, a sustained organ drone begins to build up, which The Quietus described as something trying to break through.[45] Catchpole hypothesized it might be sampling a part of the Caretaker's previous release Deleted Scenes, Forgotten Dreams.[47] The organ gets gradually lower in intensity as the track progresses, before eventually abruptly cutting out to the sound of a vinyl needle hitting a record, six minutes before the ending of the album.[15] The last six minutes present the style and coherence usually associated with the first three stages of the project, sampling the track "Friends past reunited" which had previously appeared on the Caretaker's debut and second studio albums, Selected Memories from the Haunted Ballroom and A Stairway to the Stars respectively.[30] The song samples an excerpt of the German aria "Laßt mich ihn nur noch einmal küssen" from the St Luke Passion, BWV 246.[49] The entire series ends with a singular minute of silence, representing the end of the Caretaker alias and symbolizing the death of an Alzheimer's patient, as one minute of silence is usually the mandatory default time for paying respects to a dead individual or a group of individuals.[44]

Several writers have described an emotional response when listening to the final segment of the project,[45][47][46] along with several interpretations being formed surrounding the last minutes of the album, due to it being an unexpected moment where music returns after a long time of static noise.[30] The most accepted hypothesis is that the moment is a representation of terminal lucidity, a rare phenomenon where dementia patients suddenly regain their memory hours before death.[15] Other interpretations include the last six minutes being the funeral of the character, the soul of the patient moving on to the afterlife, or simply death.[30][49] Ryce suggested that what is being portrayed might be "a kind of oblivion,"[44] while Catchpole described the moment as perhaps "the brain hallucinating all along."[47]

The album cover is titled Necrotomigaud.[31] The artwork is generally thought to be a depiction of an empty canvas or the back of a picture frame with four strips of blue painter's tape, being described by Andrew Ryce as "meaningless and flattening."[44] It is also thought to be the patient being reduced to a completely blank canvas, with some commentators adding that the invisibility of the other side is a representation of all the life experiences of the patient no longer being accessible to them, due to the late stages of dementia having "destroyed" their ability to think.[30] However, Sydney Leahy's article on Everywhere at the End of Time stated the artwork depicts "a singular art board with four pieces of blue tape," adding it also serves as "the embodiment of nothingness."[25]