The Caretaker

A prolific artist dedicated to exploring how music and memory relate -- and deteriorate -- Leyland James Kirby has released music under many guises, including V/Vm, the Caretaker, the Stranger, and his given name. He initiated the Caretaker, a project inspired by the film The Shining, with 1999's Selected Memories from the Haunted Ballroom, an album built from distorted, fragmented samples of old 78 RPM records. The project continued with releases like 2008's Persistent Repetition of Phrases, then reached a wider audience when An Empty Bliss Beyond This World became one of the most acclaimed albums of 2011. Kirby concluded the Caretaker with Everywhere at the End of Time, an interpretation of the cycle of dementia, issued in six stages between 2016 and 2019.