When Joseph Salazar, a producer and composer from Austin, sent over this song, he included only a link to the following tweet by writer and illustrator Tim Urban:

The last stars will die out 120 trillion years from now (at most) followed by 10^106 years of just black holes.

Condensed, that’s like the universe starting with 1 second of stars and then a billion billion billion billion billion billion billion years of just black holes.

Stars are basically the immediate after-effects of the Big Bang. A one-second sizzle of brightness before settling into an essentially endless era of darkness.

We live in that one bright second.

As much of a mind fuck as the thought of all that is, how can you not feel a little luckier to get to live within that “one bright second”? The thought of an eternity of darkness before and afterwards is terrifying, but I’m comforted by my luck to have landed where and when I did. I think this is applicable on a smaller scale too: sometimes I wish I’d been born in another era, especially when I worry about how the world will change throughout my daughter’s lifetime, but I should ultimately just count myself lucky that I get to have lived now versus having missed it all altogether. The luck is in the living itself.

This song must have been made in the same stargazing frame of mind. It sounds it–contemplative synthwave with a fuzzy euphoric finish.

Grab it on bandcamp for whatever you wish to pay, or find it for streaming anywhere.

Joseph Salazar – “The Main Sequence” (bc)