Ubiel is a village on the territory of present Belarus with a long and difficult history – after World War II, depopulated, it basically ceased to exist. Many years earlier, on May 5, 1819, Stanisław Moniuszko was born in Ubiel.
An ambient-experimental musical project of the same name by Piotr Dąbrowski is a specific soundtrack for this place. Seven chamber compositions by Moniuszko served as the basis for its creation, but their original character has changed to such an extent that it is difficult to talk about adaptations, but rather derivatives, autonomous musical entities. One of the basic assumptions of the project was the total rejection of classical instruments. They were replaced by a modular system, electroacoustic devices, additional harmonic drone structures and field recordings. Any fidelity to the compositions of Moniuszko is out of the question – although they are sometimes audible, they are subject to improvisation and chaos. The machine cannot be easily tamed and enforces dialogue with itself.
Ubiel live is largely an improvised audiovisual project of Piotr Dąbrowski (music) and Tom Skof (visuals).
Review in Anxious Magazine (by Paweł Grabowski, in Polish):