Dopey Monkey and guests – a bold and boundary-pushing duo of Scottish composers and musicians, Martina Lee Thomson (euphonium) and Danielle Price (tuba), are known for blending musical worlds with flair. Their sound floats between funky grooves, jazz, experimental textures, folk influences, and classical foundations – all while boldly redefining what their brass instruments can do. Since forming in 2015, the pair has tirelessly explored not only their own creative limits but also the possibilities of interdisciplinary collaboration, mixing various media and performance styles. Their live shows are anything but conventional – they’re curious, dynamic, and always full of surprises. For the East of Culture – Different Sounds festival and the UK/Poland 2025 artistic season, Dopey Monkey has teamed up with Lublin-based artists from the collective Zielona Girlanda and multi-instrumentalist Tomasz Graczyk to create something truly unique.   

Born out of collaborative workshops in 2024, their new project fuses genres in a captivating performance inspired by folk traditions, nature, and the art of storytelling. Alongside the rich tones of tuba and euphonium, audiences will hear soprano and tenor saxophones, layered vocals, and soundscapes that feel both earthy and otherworldly.

During the festival, this Polish-Scottish crew will pop up across Lublin in unexpected places. But don’t expect your typical street performance – instead, they’ll travel with a mobile “concert space”, inspired by places of pause and reflection like bothies (basic, freely accessible shelters found in remote parts of Scotland, northern England, Ulster, and Wales) and chapels.
Spectators are invited to step inside, slow down, and immerse themselves in rich sonic landscapes in an intimate, soul-soothing setting.

Zielona Girlanda – three voices, three personalities, distinct musical backgrounds and experiences.
For over a decade, their shared passion for traditional folk music has fueled a quest to understand and create a unified sound. The name originates from the opening lines of a popular oczepiny (unveiling) song from the Lublin region. Primarily drawing from its repertoire, the trio honors the powerful legacy of female musicians while also unearthing and reimagining forgotten voices found in archival recordings

Tomek Graczyk (a.k.a. Grakou) – a self-taught master of the bass and guitar who, in recent years,
has pursued classical training on the double bass and saxophone. His musical journey is a vibrant testament to a spirit unbound by genre. From laying down the basslines for the electro-rock outfit BREMENN, to co-creating the neoclassical-electronic soundscapes of We Are Polarized, and then immersing himself in traditional music with the Boygn Trio and the Jagiellonian Fair Orchestra – Grakou’s path is one of constant exploration. Now, he’s venturing into the world of jazz on the tenor saxophone and unleashing his improvisational spirit in the experimental project NNNIEBO.