James Leyland Kirby has been making music under various monikers for quite a while. I first heard of him when he remixed (this is not the one I heard but it is the jam) Aphex Twin as V/VM. That stuff tends to be pretty harsh and I filed it under "cool, but not to listen to very often." However, his work under his own name and The Caretaker is pretty heartbreakingly beautiful. His most recent album An Empty Bliss Beyond This World has been my nightcap for the past week and half. He uses hazy loops from old 78's he's collected over the years of what seem to be ballroom music to construct songs that feel like drifting in a dream. Apparently the whole Caretaker project was inspired by the haunted ballroom scene in The Shining and past releases have had a strong undercurrent of dread. This album deals with the concept of Alzheimer's and tries to recreate and represent the process of memory deterioration through sound. So pieces of songs repeat with varying levels of clarity and echo throughout the album. Song titles too repeat. The interesting thing to me is the lightness of the music here. If you've ever seen someone with Alzheimer's there is a level of whimsy to their experience that comes along with the sadness and loss and Kirby captures it here. Download "Libet's Delay" a track that adds enough echo that it's difficult to distinguish whether the original piano track is of two keys being hit or if its altered to the point that it sounds that way. I imagine gliding down a gorgeous hallway full of smartly dressed dandies. The Caretaker - Libet's Delay mp3
And check out this unofficial but transfixing video that highlights the echo, repetition and strangeness that Kirby has added to this mundane source material:
So good, It makes me feel as If I'm present in one of Jack Nicholson's visions in The Shining
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