The Depths · All albums

Everywhere at the End of Time

The Caretaker · 2019

• Scores: Noise 2, Unease 5, Complexity 2 (each 1 to 5)
• Genre: Electronic, Ambient
• Mood: wistful, dissolving, desolate
• Sound: six-album cycle, looped ballroom records, progressive degradation, around six hours long

Everywhere at the End of Time is a six-part series, released between 2016 and 2019 by James Leyland Kirby as The Caretaker, that follows the progress of Alzheimer's disease. It is built from degraded samples of 1920s and 1930s ballroom and big band records, with Al Bowlly's "Heartaches" recurring and breaking down across the stages. The first three stages loop warm-sounding dance music with growing distortion, and stages four to six turn to noise, drone and sound collage, ending in sparse, drowned textures. Kirby left about six months between each release so that listeners would feel time passing, and the whole series runs for around six and a half hours.

Track list

1. It's just a burning memory (3:32)
2. We don't have many days (3:30)
3. Late afternoon drifting (3:35)
4. Childishly fresh eyes (2:58)
5. Slightly bewildered (2:01)
6. Things that are beautiful and transient (4:34)
7. All that follows is true (3:31)
8. An autumnal equinox (2:46)
9. Quiet internal rebellions (3:30)
10. The loves of my entire life (4:04)
11. Into each others eyes (4:36)
12. My heart will stop in joy (2:41)
13. A losing battle is raging (4:37)
14. Misplaced in time (4:42)
15. What does it matter how my heart breaks (2:37)
16. Glimpses of hope in trying times (4:43)
17. Surrendering to despair (5:03)
18. I still feel as though I am me (4:07)
19. Quiet dusk coming early (3:36)
20. Last moments of pure recall (3:52)
21. Denial unravelling (4:16)
22. The way ahead feels lonely (4:15)
23. Back there Benjamin (4:14)
24. And heart breaks (4:05)
25. Hidden sea buried deep (1:20)
26. Libet's all joyful camaraderie (3:12)
27. To the minimal great hidden (1:41)
28. Sublime beyond loss (2:10)
29. Bewildered in other eyes (1:51)
30. Long term dusk glimpses (3:33)
31. Gradations of arms length (1:31)
32. Drifting time misplaced (4:15)
33. Internal bewildered world (3:29)
34. Burning despair does ache (2:37)
35. Aching cavern without lucidity (1:19)
36. An empty bliss beyond this world (3:36)
37. Libet delay (3:57)
38. Mournful camaraderie (2:39)
39. Post Awareness Confusions (22:09)
40. Post Awareness Confusions (21:53)
41. Temporary Bliss State (21:01)
42. Post Awareness Confusions (22:16)
43. Advanced plaque entanglements (22:35)
44. Advanced plaque entanglements (22:48)
45. Synapse retrogenesis (20:48)
46. Sudden time regression into isolation (22:08)
47. A confusion so thick you forget forgetting (21:52)
48. A brutal bliss beyond this empty defeat (21:36)
49. Long decline is over (21:09)
50. Place in the World fades away (21:19)