- "What the hell are we doing?" said Ryan Crosson, as he, myself and eight others filed into a cable car high in the Swiss Alps last Sunday. The Visionquest member was standing behind a set of decks, about to DJ for the time it took our cable car to ascend to the 3,000-metre Plaine Morte peak and back. Run by the team behind Caprices Festival, this was the second MDRNTY+ party of the week—the first had taken place a couple of days earlier with Magda in a hot-air balloon. Both events, recorded with VR (virtual reality) cameras, confirmed two things: firstly, that Caprices is run by people who know how to enjoy themselves, and secondly, that it takes a country with Switzerland's resources to turn such wild ideas into realities.
The remainder of Caprices' 13th edition may have taken place back on terra firma, but it was an equally slick operation. Even the food was several notches above anything you'd normally see at a festival—at one ribs stand, a hulking, $20,000 meat smoker had been flown in from Texas especially for the occasion.
The festival's two main venues were MDRNTY, a high-altitude greenhouse-like structure open during the day, and The Moon, a larger hall located down in the nearby town of Crans-Montana. The nearest airport was a two-to-three-hour drive from the site, so I arrived a little weary on Thursday night. Heading straight to The Moon, Swiss pair Kun's nicely pitched live set quickly put a spring back in my step, helped by subsequent full-throttle turns from DJ Tennis and Magda.
The following day, in the midst of a total white-out, I took the cable car up to MDRNTY for the opening party. Though I couldn't see much, it was impossible to ignore the venue's extraordinary setting, which looked like something out of Christopher Nolan's Inception. Jamie Jones and The Martinez Brothers were in the middle of a long back-to-back when I got there, dropping bombs like Ralphi Rosario's "You Used To Hold Me" and Carl Craig's frantic remix of Adult.'s "Hand To Phone."
Down at The Moon, successes far outweighed disappointments. The crystalline charms of Mind Against, wafting in high definition from the hall's excellent soundsystem, were the highlight of a bill that also included Tale Of Us, Recondite and Âme. Maceo Plex, who's not a DJ I've enjoyed much in the past, took things down a surprisingly meditative side-street on Saturday with Villalobos's "Dexter," before neatly ramping up the energy with Lord Of The Isles' "Clearness Of Love." But it was Ilario Alicante who stole the show, ensuring his set was one of the most talked-about of the weekend with intense blasts of dark techno that brought the whole room to attention.
Ricardo Villalobos's set in the bright sunlight of MDRNTY on Saturday was a familiar blend of wonderful music, swishy stage moves and technical errors, with Josh Wink's "Higher State Of Consciousness" and Lil' Louis' "French Kiss" the banner moments. The weather improved further for the closing on Sunday, and I spent almost as much time gazing open-mouthed at the mountain scenery outside as I did dancing to Mathew Jonson's live set and Sven Väth's blistering finale. Music is bound to feel more vivid in a setting as stunning as Crans-Montana, and it inspired many of the acts I saw to up their game. This combination makes Caprices an experience no one is ever likely to forget.
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Valeriu Catalineanu