My Experience Listening To The Caretaker’s “Everywhere At The End Of Time”

Warning: Mentions of Alzheimer’s, Dementia, and memory loss throughout.

If you’re already familiar with the six-stage musical project that is The Caretaker’s Everywhere At The End Of Time, then it probably comes as no surprise as to why I am writing an article like this about it. But for those who were unaware of a project like this until now, be warned that this is not a musical piece for the faint of heart.

With the six stages of this project being released between 2016 and 2019 , Everywhere At The End Of Time is arguably the most prominent piece from UK producer Leyland James Kirby’s musical project The Caretaker. And much like many people before me, I was absolutely fascinated by the project solely on the surface level. The amount of reception that it received from people claiming that this project “broke them”, I couldn’t help but feel that Everywhere At The End Of Time reflected my desire to listen to a musical project with the impact of a speeding truck.

Upon my first attempt to delve in to this project however, I realised just how fleshed-out this project truly was, with each of its six stages coming together to make just over six and a half hours of listening time, with each of the stages varying in duration. Furthermore, Everywhere At The End Of Time definitely didn’t feel like a project I could simply skim over. If I wanted to get the full sense of what this project artistically represents, I would have to listen to all of it, or at least one stage at a time.

This discovery of the musical project, and the kind of feelings that it invoked in me, served as part of the driving force behind why I decided to write as unique of an article as possible surrounding it.

However, there is also the concept that this musical project is focused on. Throughout the three years that Everywhere At The End Of Time developed, it became clearer and clearer to listeners what the project was all about. James Kirby’s masterpiece represents the stages of memory loss, that happen as a result of Dementia, in a completely artistic and musical way.

This concept really hit a nerve with me personally, as I have experienced a grandparent suffer from Dementia, triggered by Alzheimer’s, and it eventually led to their passing. There were only a few select memories I had as a child, in which I remember sharing moments with this relative before Alzheimer’s completely took hold. And with that being said, I never truly got the chance to connect with them the same way in my late childhood and teenage years. Somehow, this project offered a chance for me to at least understand what they must’ve been going through.

But even with these attributes to motivate me, I knew that it would be close to impossible, trying to listen to the project completely from start to finish. As a result, I felt that the best course of action would be to explore the stages one-by-one, in a writing formula that could be seen as similar to six diary entries. At the end of the day, those who knew of the project’s existence from the very beginning, most likely had to listen to each stage in the same way. I am also going to go ahead and write about each stage as I listen to them, meaning that I may write about them in a fairly spontaneous manner.

So here I go, to try and review what may just be the most artistically dark musical project I have ever heard; The Caretaker’s Everywhere At The End Of Time.