Missing Link

“What is the true nature of time?” There’s a theory that the answer to this question lies in entropy. Entropy is a term used in physics, which, in simple terms, describes “how disordered something is.” When this topic comes up, there’s always someone who jokes, “Oh, my room has high entropy,” and they’re not entirely wrong. For example, when molecules are orderly arranged like in ice, entropy is low, but when they are randomly distributed as in steam, entropy is high.

This term “entropy” often appears in conjunction with “the second law of thermodynamics,” which states that entropy tends to increase in a closed system. For instance, a freezer lowers entropy by cooling its contents, but since it expels heat into its surroundings, the overall entropy increases. This rough explanation is sufficient for now, as it’s not the main subject of this text.

Referring back to the initial question, “What is the true nature of time?” If we rephrase the second law of thermodynamics, which says that entropy increases with time and never decreases, we can conclude that the direction in which entropy increases is the future, and the direction in which it decreases is the past. This, they say, is the true nature of time. The universe and time began in a state of order, and the end of the universe and time will be a state of complete chaos.

The reason I started with this somewhat complex explanation is that this song was created based on the concept of entropy. While working on the theme of this album, “verbalization,” I aimed to verbalize my own methods and rules of thumb for music production, and I realized that using the term entropy made all explanations flow smoothly. I named this concept “entropy music theory,” and this song was created as a test, demonstration, and embodiment of that concept.

As I mentioned, entropy describes “how disordered something is,” and when applied to music, it can be rephrased as “how complex something is or how much information it contains.” The origin of this theory came from a situation where I needed a counter-melody for the main melody while composing a song, but there was no instrument available to play it. I tried making the chords and rhythm patterns more complex, and found that I no longer felt the need for a counter-melody. This meant that one musical element could substitute for another, and by using the term entropy, I began developing the entropy music theory.

This concept of entropy can also be applied to sound itself. For example, when you distort a guitar, the sound gets compressed, making even the finer details clear, and the added harmonics increase the information content, thus raising the entropy. Conversely, a synthesizer playing a complex chord can become a jumbled mess, indicating that the sound itself has high entropy. The entropy music theory aims to classify musical elements by their entropy, enabling the deliberate replacement of musical components to create unprecedented music.

When explaining sound using entropy, you can define both the starting and ending points. The ultimate orderly state is a sine wave, containing no harmonic or performance information, only the pure tone itself. The frequency is typically A=440Hz, the standard tuning pitch in orchestras. The ultimate chaotic state is white noise, where all frequencies are present at equal intensity, making it the epitome of sonic complexity. Thus, music can be seen as the spectrum of possibilities between the cosmos (order) and chaos.

In this track, “Missing Link,” the music transitions from cosmos to chaos. However, feeling presumptuous about limiting the infinite possibilities between these states to one, I intentionally omitted the middle part. The song starts with a simple sine wave that morphs into a complex sound, leading into the main theme, which was programmed on a synthesizer to minimize the information added by live performance. The theme’s development involves gradually adding noise. The second half, based on a riff from a previous jam session, uses live performance, distorted sounds, clashing chords, and a 7/8 time signature to express chaos, culminating in white noise. To further approach white noise, you can layer unrelated songs, increasing the information content. Here, reflecting the idea that increasing entropy represents time, I created and overlaid sounds representing each decade from the 1960s to the 2010s.

Thus, what we recognize as music lies between the sine wave (cosmos) and white noise (chaos), neither too orderly nor too chaotic. The path from cosmos to chaos isn’t singular but offers infinite patterns. The title “Missing Link” refers to the undiscovered paths, representing all the music yet to be found or created.