At last we gave up and went to the third and last day of the iDEAL Festival, I pretty much had no choice since Viktor was playing and there is no chance in hell that I’m going to miss that.

I almost had butterflies in my stomach when the V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble entered the stage since I knew it would be a wonderful show. Of course they delivered and then some! It was a wonderful, warm and moving set and I know that a lot of people agree with me that this was the highlight of the day, I even overheard people saying that it was the highlight of the festival.

After The Ensemble’s set we went to have some sushi and therefor missed most of Henrik Ohlson and Anders Dahl’s set but I quite enjoyed the short part that I heard. When we came back from our late lunch/early dinner Leif Elggren was almost done with his set but the 10 or so minutes that I saw were great. Some sort of arty Power Electronics with vocals that reminded me of Survival Unit. Much better than I had expected, or in all honesty, I had no idea what to expect.

Then it was time for another act I didn’t to what to expect from, though I thought Goodiepal would play some sort of messed up Breakcore. I don’t think I’ve ever been so wrong. This wasn’t really music at all, and I’m not quite sure how to describe it. Goodiepal kicked off his set with a one man game of Intergalactic Chess that he made sound effects to with a strange box. He also showed the audience his homemade mechanical birds, told a bunch of stories and ended it all with playing some small chimes. It was puzzling yet brilliant and charming. Oh, I also have to mention his beard, that was almost an art form in itself!

I sat through Mark Wastell’s set which I guess was ok but not really interesting. He played a huge gong, letting the resonance feedback and created dark ambient soundscapes. The stage-set and instrument looked awesome, but the sounds never took off somehow. I pretty much felt the same about Radboud Mens, it was ok but not much more. I’ve never been a fan of the dark industrial Ant-Zen like beats and he didn’t convert me with his set.

Then it was time for the second highlight of the evening. I’ve been a huge fan of William Basinski since he released the Disintegration Loop albums, and even though those are my favourites I like pretty much everything I’ve heard from him. He began with playing an almost violent yet somnambulistic drone. At the exact moment when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore he switced to his tape loops and played beautiful piano and field recordings for a few minutes and then the mainpart of the set was over. He held a short speech and then offered to play a short song he had just finished, at least as I understood it. That song lasted for a good 10+ minutes and was very sweet and Eno’esque. What puzzled me about Basinskis set was that he looked so bored when he played but was soo charming when he spoke to the audience, it didn’t really make sense.

The festival ended with a Skull Defekts set and a KREV ritual that surprised me. It was short, quite beautiful but also hilarious since it was too God damned pompous. I guess it was all intentional though.

Anyway, that was the end of this years iDEAL Festival, and I guess the end of the Festival as we know it. I’m sure they will be back next year under a new name in one way or another.