Leyland Kirby

James Leyland Kirby is the real name of The Caretaker, an artist formerly known as V/Vm. In recent years his tireless trawl through obsolete 78rpm discovered in a Stockport record shop have provided the source material for a ghostly new sound centred around that school of hauntology identified by Simon Reynolds. Since moving to Berlin over two years ago, Kirby has been exploring a sound beyond the mottled loops of his 'Persistant Repetition Of Phrases', seeking to encapsulate a deep feeling of loss and alienation. What started out as a concept for a single album, soon blossomed into a triple double-vinyl series, and triple CD pack as the material proliferated. To give some background to the feelings exposed in this music Kirby himself says "Here we stand, twenty years on from the first CD, and our optimism has been gradually eroded away collectively. 'Tomorrows World' never came. We are lost and isolated, many of us living our lives through social networks as we try to make sense of it all, becoming voyeurs not active participants. Documenting everything. No Mystery. Everything laid bare for all to see".

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