Anyone reading this now probably missed the chance to see grande dame of avant garde acoustic performance, Laurie Anderson, Brighton Festival’s iconic final act.

But there’s a chance to catch up with her rat terrier, Lolabelle, on YouTube. Lolabelle had (sorry) a gift for keyboards, played the blues for treats and made funny big eyes if you switched on the reverb function.

All The Animals was a fabulous menagerie of Anderson’s work over the years from the poignant – her dying mother’s vision of animals on the ceiling above her hospital bed – to the apocalyptic – species extinction and environmental collapse – to the downright sensible – never try to make an opera out of Moby Dick, or any other novel that you really care about. It just won’t work.

For with age (Anderson is an elfin 67) comes wisdom. And self-knowledge. And humour. A lot of it. Anderson’s wry delivery and gentle storytelling camouflaged her technical brilliance. She was very busy up on stage, creating sounds and colours, new audio atmospheres. She was busy but she was playing. She was having fun, and it was wonderful.

All The Animals, as has been the whole of Ali Smith’s directorship of this year’s festival, was a triumph for wonder.

Five stars