I did a little scientific research before starting this one. Sure, Absolute Zero is pretty darn cold (brr!), but what else is there to help guide the songwriting? I did not feel that "cold" alone was sufficient to carry a track that would fit in Music To Die Alone In Space To. Fortunately, as I researched the concept of Absolute Zero, I learned something else that DID give me a jolt of inspiration: another way to look at Absolute Zero is not as the complete absence of heat/temperature, but also as the state of minimal entropy. From an information/entropic standpoint, being at Absolute Zero has the state of the least entropy possible, because heat- jostling around, making gas molecules mix up, causing osmosis and particle movement- is not adding any randomness or removing information from your system. When every single particle is frozen exactly where it is, you've got perfect crystallization of information.

With that inspiration, I was off to the synths. "Absolute Zero" starts by representing a gas- possibly the air in your suit, possibly the occasional particles found in the vacuum- zooming around every which way, like they've got temperature. They are in complete and total chaos: all 12 chromatic scale-steps are present, they are ricocheting from ear to ear, bouncing everywhere! As the temperature begins to cool, chaos information begins to leave the system- some scale-steps stop being present, and in fact, so gradually the listener doesn't notice it, the chaos resolves into a "crystal", where only one chord is playing- at that point you'll suddenly realize that the chaotic gas field is now locked in a certain position. From there, we begin lowering the temperature, and in the middle of the track, there's an instance where we do reach absolute zero- the particles start moving slower and slower, until they stop completely and freeze. Then some heat is re-added and the rest of the track is a satisfying conclusion to finish the musical adventure.

In this track, what chord emerges as the crystal out of the original chaos is one of the nondeterministic elements. It could be any three scale steps! This has been a very fun one to export renders of, because every time I start listening, I am hearing that original chaotic field of excited gas particles, and trying to listen for what chord is beginning to emerge out of it. Sometimes if it's a consonant chord like a major or seventh chord it makes the whole track quite pleasant; sometimes it's diminished or just three consecutive half steps and the track is quite dissonant. The fun of generative music!!