When I began to think about what sort of musical experience might send 2011 off into history and open the way to 2012, I felt most excited about a real-time experience with musical collective action.

This may be a rather prosaic name for the ensemble, but I offer it as an expression of solidarity with the stalwart activities of similarly named groups in Glasgow, Toronto, and London and to a terrific essay by George Lewis titled Improvisation and the Orchestra. Lewis concludes his essay with a quote from Jacques Attali: "Music is no longer made to be represented or stockpiled, but for participation in collective play, in an ongoing quest for new, immediate communication, without ritual and always unstable."