The Ashcan Orchestra is simultaneously the audio/visual work of composer P. Spadine, a large collection of toy, re-appropriated, and "real" instruments, and a revolving performance ensemble based in Bushwick, NY. Since 2007 the ensemble has been popping up in D.I.Y. style and art house venues thoughout NYC and the eastern seaboard, employing everything from children's handbells, prepared tape recorders, stacks of discarded televisions, homemade circuitry, colored lightbulbs, mirrors, to more widely accepted noisemakers to create new music in forms more familiar than the instrumentation would lead the listener to believe. This process from humble and understandable beginnings to grander and more complex ends, has been a vehicle to both celebrate and emulate the physics that bind the known universe. Hailing from the nefarious Le Wallet, Ashcan has shared space, members, and ideas with many like minded groups, including Chubby Behemoth, LuxLuxLuster, Cavex, PC Worship and The Dreebs.

Congruent to its objective to create a sense of wonder towards the physical universe, the Ashcan Orchestra presented a dramatized creation story, in the form of a one act opera with its largest ensemble to date.

The opera, titled "Apollo's Accidental Answer," is based on the myth of Cassandra, and follows her newly granted power to see into the past. Her visions form a creation story that ranges from the big bang to human civilization, all of which takes place in her room, and her mind's "eye".