This essay was inspired by the album “Everywhere at the end of time” by The Caretaker. I listened to the album while writing this and I got most of my information from multiple reviews and commentary channels that went over this album. I do not take credit for any of this information; I simply put it into an essay. 
    Dementia is one of the most terrifying diseases out in the world. It can take away your memories, loved ones and your own life. Some people take this disease for granted and believe it's not as bad as it seems. There are six stages of dementia. It starts out slow but gradually gets worse and worse.The everywhere at the end of time album is an artistic deception of dementia. There are many backstories and things about this album other than the music which will be discussed later on. But for now we will discuss the 6 stages.
    The first stage of dementia. The first stage of dementia is described as “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.” If you listen to the album “Everywhere at the end of time”  it is very peaceful. The music is like a record that is a little scratched up but still works greatly. The music is from the 30s so you get that older feeling of being an elderly person. It is peaceful and very calm at the first stage.  Some things get hard to remember but you just carry on with life. Some memories get lost just like they do in old age. This stage you simply get to admire old age as this terrifying disease sets in.
    The second stage of dementia. This stage is described as “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.” This stage is where confusion is soon settling in and the golden days have now passed. In the music for this stage it gets more unsettling and more unnerving. Especially in the song “Glimpse of hope in trying time” is where it becomes very unsettling and goes downhill from there. As you're in the second stage now you try to remember the tune of the first stage's music but it slowly gets harder to remember as the time goes by. The music also gets more scuffed as the time goes by. You start to question your relatives a bit but you continue on as your mind gets more fuzzy. This describes how a person would feel in the second stage. 
    The third stage. The third stage is described as “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.” In this stage the music is very unnerving and eerie. The music in the third stage sounds like everything is tangled and it becomes harder to remember what stage 1 once sounded like. It also becomes harder to identify what instruments are being played as it all blends together to create chaos. Things you did minutes ago get harder to remember and relatives are slightly unrecognizable and soon you become aware of what is happening. They say that when you have dementia one of the easiest things for you to remember is your favorite song. That's why music is the best way to describe the stages of dementia. Soon after the third stage the memories will get ripped apart more until none are left.
    The fourth stage. The fourth stage has been described as “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.“ This stage is where everything starts to be dismantled even more. In this stage of the album the songs get longer when they were originally at around 40 minutes to now 90 minutes. The music becomes less like an old distorted album to a more distorted and noise filled album. You get less of the old 30s feel to the music and more of a whitenoise song filled with weird and disturbing noises. For stage four there are less songs; all of the song names for this stage are “Stage 4 Post Awareness Confusions'' except for one called “Stage 4 Temporary Bliss State.” For this stage of dementia people will have problems with remembering basic things like names, details and they may also socially withdraw themselves from new situations. They also seem to recognize the world as a blur and it gets harder to recognize people.
    Stage five. The fifth stage is described as “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.” In this stage of the disease you soon forget what objects are and people are unrecognizable. When you look in the mirror you just look like a mix of hair and skin. You've sinked into the abyss and everything is a blur. The music in this stage is almost unlistenable. It is just a mix of scary sounds and the faint noise of the 30s music. It becomes hard to listen to as when you're listening to it your brain feels like it's melting.The music becomes to be considered as just white noise. You can barely remember the tune of what once was stage 1. 
    The last and final stage, stage six. For this stage it says “Post-Awareness Stage 6 is without description.”  This stage is without a description because at this point you're a lifeless body. You already forgot everything and fell into a confusion so thick you forgot forgetting. Everything in the world is a blur and nothing makes sense anymore. You forgot everyone and things like simple tasks to the point where you never move anymore. The music in this stage is unsettling to where it's almost peaceful. It is a lot of whitenoise with loud noises fading in. The old 30s record no longer fades in anymore and you can hear a faint noise of piano around 30 minutes in. The music in this stage represents how all memory is gone in the last stage before death as it is just weird sounds and white noise. 
    The backstory of this project and the art involved. James Leyland Kirby (the caretaker) is an English electronic musician. He created Everywhere At The End Of Time to try and describe an indescribable disease to a normal person. This album took many years to be produced and took from 2016-2019 just for the music to be out in the world. This album really is a great example of “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”. The aesthetic of the series Kirby was going for was based on the video where you can't name one object in the photo. The first song title of stage 1 is called “a burning memory''. This music is actually extracted from an oldies song called “heartaches” by Al Bowwly. In the song it says “i can't believe it was just a burning memory” and that is why the first song name is called “a burning memory”. Ivan seal is a english artist whose art is very abstract and he worked with the caretaker to create the album covers. The album cover is a parallel between the self portraits of William Bucher Mullen. William was an artist diagnosed with dementia who wanted to make self portraits every year of himself to show how unfamiliar he was with his own reflection.
    All in the end this album was truly an eye opening experience. Between how this project started and how amazingly it came out it was definitely worth the time listening.  At the end of the day for dementia patients when the music goes, so do they.