Absolute

Absolute may refer to:

Science

Mathematics

Law

Politics

Linguistics

Philosophy

Absolute (Time-Life album)

Absolute is a music compilation album under both the Body and Soul and Midnight Soul collection series. Distributed by Time-Life through its music division, the album was released January 28, 2003 and was originally under the Body and Soul series. It was re-released in 2008 when Time-Life launched the Midnight Soul series.

It is distributed both in two versions: the single CD sold-in-stores and the Time-Life exclusive version on the double CD set. The sold-in-stores version features seventeen urban contemporary R&B hits, with many of them released in the Neo soul music era. The Time-Life exclusive version features 24 hits on 2 CDs, including seven more songs not featured in stores.

Track listing

sold-in-stores version

Absolute construction

In linguistics, an absolute construction is a grammatical construction standing apart from a normal or usual syntactical relation with other words or sentence elements. It can be a non-finite clause that is subordinate in form and modifies an entire sentence, an adjective or possessive pronoun standing alone without a modified substantive, or a transitive verb when its object is implied but not stated. The term absolute derives from Latin absolūtum, meaning "loosened from" or "separated".

Because the non-finite clause, called the absolute clause (or simply the absolute), is not semantically attached to any single element in the sentence, it is easily confused with a dangling participle. The difference is that the participial phrase of a dangling participle is intended to modify a particular noun, but is instead erroneously attached to a different noun, whereas a participial phrase serving as an absolute clause is not intended to modify any noun at all.

English

While the absolute construction is not particularly common in modern English and is generally more often seen in writing than in speech, it may be spoken as one of several fixed expressions:

Absolute (perfumery)

Used in perfumery and aromatherapy, absolutes are similar to essential oils. They are concentrated, highly aromatic, oily mixtures extracted from plants. Whereas essential oils can typically be produced through steam distillation, absolutes require the use of solvent extraction techniques or more traditionally, through enfleurage.

Production

First, an organic solvent, such as hexane, is added to the plant material to help extract the non-polar compounds. This solution is filtered and concentrated by distillation to produce a waxy mass called concrete. The more polar, fragrant compounds are extracted from the concrete into ethanol. When the ethanol evaporates, an oil—the absolute—is left behind.

Character and use

Absolutes are usually more concentrated than essential oils. Also, the efficiency and low temperature of the extraction process helps prevent damage to the fragrant compounds. With a good understanding of the solvent they are using, extractors can produce absolutes with aromas closer to the original plant product than is possible with essential oils produced through distillation. Examples of this are rose otto (steam-distilled rose oil), as opposed to rose absolute, and neroli (steam-distilled oil from the blossom of the bitter orange tree), as opposed to orange blossom absolute. Also, some raw materials are either too delicate or too inert to be steam-distilled and can only yield their aroma through other methods, such as solvent extraction or lipid absorption. Examples of these are jasmine, tuberose, mimosa, and beeswax.

Absolute (record compilation)

Absolute is the brand of a long-running series of compilation albums owned by the Swedish record company EVA Records. Initially, the only albums in the series were called Absolute Music, but starting in 1990 there have been other themed albums such as Absolute Dance and Absolute Rock.

History

The first Absolute album, Absolute Music 1, was released on November 11, 1986. The idea to make a compilation with contemporary hits came from the president of Virgin Records, Anders Hjelmtorp, inspired by the successful Now! albums.

During the first years after 1986, the Absolute series was a pure collaboration between record companies Virgin, EMI and Elektra. In January, 1990 EVA Records was started with Virgin, EMI and BMG as part-owners. In 1991 Warner also became a part-owner.

Since the start, new Absolute-albums have been released a few times each year. As of 2007, the latest album in the series is Absolute Music 55. Apart from the main albums in the series (Absolute Music) there have also been several themed albums. The first one was Absolute Italiana released May 14, 1990. Other examples of themed albums are :

Absolute (Aion album)

Absolute is the sixth album released by the Japanese metal band Aion. The album is more power metal and traditional heavy metal than thrash metal, a transition slowly seen throughout their releases. Exactly 7 days before the album's release, the single "Missing" came out to promote it. Oddly, a promotional video for the single's B-side "Killer" was made, but there was never an official promotional video for any song actually on Absolute.

Track listing

Credits

References