Starting tomorrow longtime New York free sound duo White Out will be curating a month of live music at The Stone in the East Village. The core of White Out is multi-instrumentalist Lin Culbertson and drummer Tom Surgal, but they usually team up with fellow musical mavericks for their live performances. Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and current Wilco guitarist (and massive musical force in his own right) Nels Cline are frequent collaborators. They also performed and recorded with Jim O'Rourke before he relocated to Tokyo a few years ago. Other partners in sound have included C. Spencer Yeh, Carlos Giffoni and Mike Watt.

Culbertson and Surgal have put together 54 shows for the month of March, bringing in a wide range of boundary-defying artists, from Charalambides' Tom Carter and Ben Chasny's Six Organs of Admittance to fellow New York innovators No-Neck Blues Band to free jazz powerhouses Gunter Hampel and Dave Burrell to The Dead C's Michael Morley. White Out will be in the mix as well, playing with Thurston Moore on March 25 and Nels Cline on March 27, along with a few other collaborations over the course of the month.

Take a look at the full schedule here or head over to The Stone's website for more details.

We asked White Out a few questions about their music and curatorial work for the coming month. Check that out below, along with a dark but wild video that we shot of White Out playing with Nels Cline at Zebulon back in July.

Eardrum: How did you end up curating these shows at The Stone?

White Out: John Zorn asked us.

You're surely excited for all of the artists and shows, but are there any that you are particularly thrilled about?

We managed to get some real heavyweight out-of-towners like Michael Morley of the Dead C and Gate, Dave Burrell, Ken Vandermark, Paul Lytton, Eugene Chadbourne, Wally Shoup, William Winant, Chris Corsano, and Six Organs of Admittance. We were also psyched to be able to book many of our local friends and compatriots, people like the Magik Markers, No-Neck Blues Band, Metal Mountains, Joe McPhee, Merce, Mountains, Noveller, DJ Olive, Nymph, and Ches Smith.

Do you have any particularly memorable moments at The Stone, either playing yourself or seeing other artists?

The Stone is truly an intimate venue, so sometimes you can see artists perform outside of their normal realm. That is really what's special about it. Evan Parker solo leaps to mind.

What sort of preparation goes into a White Out performance?

We never discuss what we're going to play beforehand, in fact we don't even practice together in a concerted effort to keep things fresh.

You're playing sets with Nels Cline and Thurston Moore, both of whom you've played with many times before. What's distinct about their approaches to the guitar?

Thurston is a highly individual artist who plays with textures and dynamics. Nels is just such an accomplished guitarist that he can play anything. They both possess the ability to create vast worlds of sound from their axes. Playing with those dudes is like accompanying a one-man orchestra.

We're bummed that Jim O'Rourke won't be making an appearance with you, but obviously it'd be a long way for him to come. Do you keep in touch with him?

Yes we're in touch with Jim, he remains a close friend. We anxiously await the day when we can play together again.

How would you say the New York soundscape has changed over the years that you've been in its midst?

The biggest change is the cultural shift to Brooklyn. Manhattan has become like Brooklyn's musical annex.

Were there any artists that you would have liked to see play in March who couldn't make it?

Mats Gustafson fell through at the last minute, Wizz Jones couldn't make it as well as Evan Parker, Marcus Schmickler, Rudolph Grey, Dos (Mike Watt, Kira) and Peter Brotzmann. Richard Bishop and James Blackshaw had scheduling conflicts.

A 2008 Village Voice piece on White Out talks about how the closing of Lower East Side venue Tonic sort of dispersed or loosened the tight, energetic community that had formed around the venue. Does March at The Stone feel like a reunion of sorts?

We do have a lot of musicians from the Tonic days playing during our month. It feels more like a protracted month-long festival than a reunion.

Do you have any recordings/releases coming up? Other plans, White Out-related or beyond?

Our first LP as a duo is coming out soon on the Belgian label AudioMer. We also have a backlog of other recordings to be mixed and released, including some killer material with both Nels and Thurston. Tom is directing a documentary about the history of Free Jazz.