Tanvi Vidyala Week #15: Everywhere at the End of Time

     A while back, I found a six-hour-long compilation on YouTube titled “Everywhere at the End of Time” by The Caretaker. The video was divided into six different stages. I wondered what exactly it was meant to represent and wanted to give it a listen. I entered the title of the video into my search bar and found a version of the same video except condensed into 20 minutes in the place of six hours. I sat and listened to it in silence as I cleaned out my backpack. 

    It started off with calming jazz music sampled from the 1930s. The audio was initially a little crackly considering the period the music was from, but it seemed quite normal. This was titled Stage 1. However, from Stage 2 until Stage 6 the music seemed to sound… a little off. It started with ringing and buzzing. Music fades in and out at random intervals. The distorted sounds continued to increase with each Stage. By the end of the final stage, there was no longer music, only static and incoherent buzzing. I scrolled down into the comments after processing what I had heard. The comments were mainly about Alzheimer's disease and Dementia, and after a quick visit to Wikipedia, I found out that The Caretaker, the producer of the album, wanted to replicate the damage neurodegenerative diseases cause to memory and brain processes through the medium of music. 

Cover art for "Everywhere at the End of Time"

    I learned about Alzheimer's disease in my psychology class this year. However, the definition I got of it was an age-linked neurodegenerative disease that was partially caused due to a deficit of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. I understood the concept of what this disease was in a broad scientific sense after hearing it defined. However, I must say I did not truly understand what it did to the mind until after I listened to this project. 

    Music projects such as this have always had a place in my heart. They perfectly encapsulate the theme that the artist is trying to convey. Hearing the ringing, distorted audio towards the end seriously scares me. It’s such a distinctly ominous feeling of knowing that our memories could all become inaccessible and one day be destroyed.

    Music is a lot like memory. Some of our memories are as clear to us as the notes in the melody of a song. However, for patients with Dementia that same memory may become garbled in their minds. The melody of their song will slowly begin to lose notes and lose its clarity just like their memories begin to lose details and coherency. I cannot imagine losing my fondest memories to a disease such as this one. To paraphrase a comment on the video, seeing a loved one lose themselves to this disease is almost worse than them dying. They are alive but their self is replaced with someone entirely unfamiliar with you and all that they’ve gone through in their lifetime. I know now not to take my memory for granted.