Better Together · October 2026 · ConfidentialReference: Chapel of Sound by OPEN Architecture, Chengde, China · photo Jonathan Leijonhufvud
Reference: Beartooth Portal at Tippet Rise, Montana · photo Erik Petersen
Executive summary
Our vision is to build a permanent home for this creative community: a place for those looking to deepen their connection to the artist inside of them and create work that will shape culture.
We want it to be the best-sounding small stage in the world, and the place where people remember how to listen.
In our words
A home celebrating sound, and the creative within us all
Bastion is a sanctuary for sound that we want to build in the hills of Southern California. One path joins three places: an outdoor amphitheater for about 150 people with a sound system made as a sculpture, a world-class recording studio ringed by twelve Arcana cabins and a Japanese bathhouse, and a gallery that tells the story of listening.
Artists live on the land for two weeks, make a piece for the bowl and play it once at dusk for the community. Retreats, takeovers, workshops and premieres earn most of what it costs to run, and patrons, partners and grants fund the residencies. We will build it in three phases, and the first money we raise pays for the work that decides everything else: the right land, a written answer from the county, and two pilot residencies in 2027.
If we give sound the care usually saved for great art, artists will make braver work, beginners will keep going, and a community will grow around listening.
USD 28.7M†Total project cost in the base case, within USD 28.0M lean to 45.2M full1
USD 16.4M†Phase 1: the land, the amphitheater and its sound system, the bathhouse and all twelve cabins
2030Bastion opens and guest stays begin, 36 months after a land contract, our target†
64%Share of operating revenue earned once fully open, against 2% at MacDowell and 90% at Esalen2, 3
USD 3.7M†A year to run once all three phases are open, with a core team of eight
USD 0.4 to 1.3M†Stage 0, what we raise first: studies, two pilot residencies and the groundwork to option land
USD 2026, Southern California costs · † planning assumption · sources in the appendix
Reference: Scripps Theater Center by Studio Gang, Hudson Valley Shakespeare · photo Jason O’Rear
What Bastion stands for
Bastion is a home in nature where people come to listen deeply, make the truest work of their lives, and share it with the community that gathers around them.
It gives Better Together’s mission, building community through arts and culture, a permanent address with sound at its center.
01
Listening comes first
Every room, path and program begins with how it sounds and how it helps people listen.
02
Craft you can feel
The sound system is a sculpture, the seats are made by hand, and every building is made for this land alone.
03
Open to the community, not the public
A world-class artist and someone picking up an instrument for the first time share the same fire.
04
Made here, kept here
What is written in the studio premieres in the bowl and stays in the archive, so the place grows a body of work.
05
Let the land lead
The buildings sit low in the oaks, the stage follows the hill, the light respects the dark, and the view is always the headliner.
We will know it is working when artists come back, premieres fill from the community, beginners keep going and the archive grows.
Why now
Listening is both an ancient art form and at the forefront of culture once again.
2019
Listening bars
Public Records opens in Brooklyn around a custom horn system4, and by 2026 listening bars are being called the hottest new nightlife from London to New York.5
2022
Systems as art
Devon Turnbull’s listening room is shown as an artwork at Lisson Gallery6, and later at the Cooper Hewitt in New York.7
2023
The one-time premiere
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra play Promises once, at the Hollywood Bowl.8
2025
A house as an instrument
Klanghaus Toggenburg opens in the Swiss Alps, a CHF 23.3M building made for sound in a landscape.9
Listening
+17.7%
Rise in US vinyl revenue in the first half of 2026, after 19 years of growth.10
Residencies
2,618
Artists who applied for one MacDowell season in 2026; 5% were accepted.2
Studios
USD 2,250
Per person for a three-day recording masterclass at Rockfield, the first residential studio, with beds and meals, June 2026.11
Cabins
USD 370 to 690
A night in a mirrored cabin, from Arcana in Ontario (2022) to Treehotel in Sweden (2026); about USD 2,600 to 4,800 a week.12, 13
Outdoor stays
1,200+
Cabins in the Postcard brand Marriott acquired in 2024, the year Hilton and Hyatt also signed outdoor hospitality partners.14
Wellness travel
USD 894B
Spent on wellness travel worldwide in 2024, more than double the USD 439B first counted in 2012.15
Many places do one part of this beautifully. We have not found one that brings a stage, a studio and a gallery of listening together in nature.
Who is building it
A community, an architect, and a cabin already built.
The community
Better Together
Better Together is an experiment in connection and culture, home to the artists, founders and builders who are ready to trade chasing for creating. Over the past decade our gatherings have stretched across the playa, to dimly lit dinners in alleyways, to dancefloors that outlasted the veterans. Our first Better Together gathering comes in May 2027, and Bastion gives that community a permanent home for sound.
Architect
Michael Leckie, Leckie Studio
A Vancouver studio founded in 2015 that designed Arcana’s mirrored cabins and has spent ten years on mass timber and prefabricated buildings for remote land. It won the RAIC Emerging Architectural Practice Award in 2021.16 Michael is a big audiophile, and he will work with a California architect of record.17
The cabins
Arcana
The 275 square foot mirrored cabin Michael designed for Arcana, a company our co-founder Steve Tam helped found, now built in Ontario as arhome and delivered whole.18 In Ontario its summer season sold out in 40 minutes.12 Arcana’s role at Bastion is still to be agreed.
Who we will add next ◦ not yet contacted
An executive director
For the Bastion Institute, ideally from a residency or retreat campus, hired at the start of Stage 1.
A general manager
Someone who has opened a design-led rural property, hired nine to twelve months before opening.
Land-use counsel and an acoustician
Local counsel for the permit, and an acoustician such as Arup, who designed Tippet Rise’s outdoor shells.◦
Boards
A founding board of three in Stage 0, then an Institute board of five to nine with an independent majority.
SECTION 01
The Place
Where Bastion sits, the three places on one path, and the architect who will draw them.
One path, three places
One path, three places, and every step gets quieter.
Indicative site diagram, not a surveyClick a place
01
The Amphitheater
At the end of the path, where the oaks open to the view: about 150 seats following the hill down to the stage, the sound system behind it, and the valley beyond.
02
The Studio and Cabins
A world-class recording studio set among the oaks with its window on the view, and twelve Arcana cabins around one shared Japanese bathhouse.
03
The Gallery and Listening Room
Near the arrival, a gallery archiving the past, present and future of sound, with a listening room for sessions on great systems.
Reference: Devon Turnbull, Ojas horn at Cooper Hewitt · photo Mark Waldhauser
The amphitheater and its sound system
An amphitheater for 150, facing the valley.
A stage carved into the hillside, with a canopy overhead and about 150 seats in seven to nine rows, so the furthest seat is only 12 to 16 meters from the stage. The audience looks past the stage to the valley, and the speakers behind the stage fire uphill into the bowl, away from the homes below.
The sound system is the one sculpture in the bowl: horn-loaded, in the lineage of the jazz kissa and the Loft, and engineered like a touring system so it stays in the bowl. We want it to be the best-sounding small outdoor system anyone has built, and a good neighbor from the first note.
SeatsAbout 150, flexing bigger and smaller
OrientationDecided: the audience faces the view and the speakers fire uphill
Sound systemHorn mains with cardioid bass horns in a roofed timber niche, USD 1.0M†
Bowl and stageUSD 2.9M with a steel canopy over the stage and front rows, back of house, restrooms and lighting†
Reference: Listude, a listening room in a Japanese forest · photo Hiroki Kawata
Reference: Real World Studios control room, Box, England
The studio
A world-class recording studio with the valley as its fourth wall.
A world-class recording studio with a big window onto the view, low sculptural seating in the spirit of Pierre Paulin, and all the hardware and instruments a world-class musician needs.Our brief
Artists in residence have it day and night for two weeks. They leave with the piece they premiere in the bowl and music they release on their own terms. Real World and Le Studio proved a big window can live in a world-class room, if it is designed with the walls from the start.
Size2,500 sf: a live room with the window, a control room, two booths and a lounge; USD 3.0M to build†
GearA large-format desk, ATC-class mains and a deep microphone locker; USD 1.0M for the gear and instruments together†
InstrumentsA Steinway D, a Hammond B3, a Rhodes, a Mellotron and a drum room, within the same USD 1.0M†
Placement200 to 400 m from the bowl, out of the speakers’ line of fire
Arcana, Ontario · cabin by Leckie Studio · photo Andrew Latreille
Our co-founder Steve Tam helped found Arcana, the mirrored cabins in the Ontario woods that Michael Leckie designed. At Bastion, twelve of them will sit around the studio, each with a bedroom, a small kitchen and a bathroom, and everyone will share one bathhouse in the Japanese tradition, with a sauna, a hot tub and a cold plunge.In our words
The cabins live as a small village around three shared places: the bathhouse, a fire circle where the day’s recording gets played back, and a long table in the house. The bathhouse is the quietest room at Bastion: you leave your shoes and your phone at the door, wash sitting down, soak, sweat, plunge, and rest outside until your body goes quiet.
The cabin275 sf, mirrored stainless steel, built as arhome and delivered whole, from USD 125k at the factory18
In OjaiUSD 300k each, delivered and installed with fire-safe details†
The bathhouseA sauna, a hot tub and a cold plunge in charred timber, with light stone where you stand wet, as California requires; USD 0.5M to build†
Who staysResidents, retreat guests and program guests. The Ojai Valley allows no stays under 30 days, so the cabins are never public rentals.19
Reference: Devon Turnbull, HiFi Pursuit Listening Room at Cooper Hewitt · photo Mark Waldhauser
The gallery
A gallery archiving the past, present, and future of sound.
A gallery that highlights the past, present and future of sound: listening rooms from history, the lineage of Japanese vinyl bars, the progression of the speaker, and space for the people building what comes next.Our brief
PastThe Machine That Listened, from Edison’s tinfoil to the horn; The Voice of Action, the first sound cinemas
LineageThe Kissa, one record played whole on a great system; The Dance, from Kingston’s sound systems to the Loft
PresentA Century of Speakers, one record moving through a hundred years of loudspeakers
FutureA room that changes, where makers and inventors move in and show new work
Doubles asThe arrival point, so everyone learns how to listen before they reach the stage
The buildingOne barn-like building of 3,000 sf with a commercial kitchen, about USD 1.5M to build†
Leckie Studio, Lantern House listening room · photo Ema Peter
The architect
Michael Leckie, Leckie Studio.
Michael is a good friend and was the partner architect on Arcana. He is an award-winning Canadian architect and a big audiophile, and he is a perfect fit for this project.In our words
His buildings frame the view, disappear into the land, stay dark outside and warm inside, filter light through timber, give sound its own room, and arrive as a kit for remote land.20 Each part of Bastion already has a precedent in his work.
At Bastion
Leckie precedent
The amphitheater
Hringurrin’s seat bowl as a landform, Lantern House’s slatted light
The studio
Camera House aimed at the view, with Lantern House’s listening room inside
The cabins and bathhouse
Arcana’s cabins and the Backcountry Hut kit, in charred timber
The gallery
Lantern House and Monos: a calm sequence of arched rooms
The path
Twin House and the Great Lakes Cabin: boardwalks through planting
The pink moment on Chief Peak, Ojai · photo Forrest Cameranesi, CC BY-SA 4.0
Location
The Ojai Valley already gathers around music.
Music since 1947The Ojai Music Festival has gathered the valley every June since 1947; its 81st festival is in June 2027 at Libbey Bowl.21
A permit pathThe county has approved camps here with overnight guests and amphitheaters: Camp Ramah in September 2025 and Forest Home in May 2026.22
People travel hereVisitors spent USD 1.95B in Ventura County in 2025, hotel tax is the City of Ojai’s largest source of general revenue, and with short-term rentals banned, good rooms are scarce.23, 24, 25
The pink momentAt dusk the Topa Topa bluffs turn pink. That is the hour every premiere will be played.
What it asks of usFire safety, water, quiet nights and patience with permits. We have planned for each of them in The Plan.
SECTION 02
The Program
A residency that ends in a premiere, a year that follows the light, and the name that holds it.
The program
Record, perform, listen and gather, on one piece of land.
01
Recording sessions
Artists in residence live on the land and make their record in the studio, with an engineer, the bathhouse and the fire at the end of every day. Between residencies, labels and artists book the studio by the day.
02
Amphitheater performances
Every residency ends with a performance at dusk for about 150 people, played once and filmed. Guest artists and full-site takeovers fill the rest of the season.
03
Gallery shows and listening room
A gallery archiving the past, present and future of sound, with rotating shows and a listening room for sessions on great systems.
04
Immersive workshops and retreats
Retreats for 10 to 20 guests over three or four days, and workshops on sound, music and creative practice, for people who live nearby and people who travel to be here.
The terms
Artists keep their music, and Bastion keeps the premiere, the film and a master for the archive. Residents receive a fee, travel, a cabin, meals, and the studio with an engineer. In the first two years, we invite the artists with a confidential circle of nominators; from year two, a guest music director and an open call join, the way the Ojai Music Festival rotates its director.
What the place makes
Recordings. The Bastion sessions, released by the artists on their own terms, and an annual anthology with a partner label.
Premiere films. Each premiere filmed at dusk with the land as a character; for most people, this is how they will first meet Bastion.
An archive. A master of every piece made here, and field recordings of the land across the seasons.
SECTION 04
The Business
What others have proven, how Bastion earns, what it costs, how it runs and who owns it.
Proof it works
Others have built each part. Here is what they prove.
Fishtail, Montana
Tippet Rise
Its foundation received USD 17.3M of contributions in 2024, and Arup designed its outdoor acoustic shells.26
A family foundation can build music into a landscape.
Toggenburg, Switzerland
Klanghaus Toggenburg
Built for CHF 23.3M, 96% of it public money, and opened in May 2025.9
A house made as an instrument can be a public institution.
Big Sur, California
Esalen Institute
USD 22.4M of revenue in 2024, 90% of it earned from programs.3
A retreat campus in California can run on what it earns.
Hudson Valley, New York
Storm King Art Center
USD 43.5M raised for its capital project by 2022, and over USD 11M from New York State.27
Land and art raise capital in campaigns.
Box, England
Real World Studios
A residential studio in the countryside since 1989, with its own label and the WOMAD festival beside it.28
A studio, a label and a festival can share one name.
Ontario, Canada
Arcana
Its summer season sold out in 40 minutes, at CAD 525 to 625 a night.12
The cabin itself already has demand.
How Bastion earns
Five ways in, and the giving that funds the art.
What one booking brings†
Format
Who
Per booking
Recording residency
A band of four to six and an engineer, two weeks
USD 35k to 70k
Retreat
10 to 20 guests, three or four days, USD 3,500 each, all in
USD 35k to 70k
Full-site takeover
About 150 people, two to four days
USD 50k to 150k
Performance evening
150 seats at USD 80
USD 12k
Workshop day
15 to 40 locals and travelers
USD 2k to 16k
Residencies are free to most artists. Labels, foundations and brands underwrite them, and one in four is paid by a label or the artist.
A year once fully open, base case, in USD1
Earned
How many
Price
A year
Retreats
10 retreats × 15 guests
USD 3,500
525k
Cabin nights
491 weekend and takeover nights
USD 550
270k
Food and drink
883 nights · 1,200 seats · 1,800 days
USD 90 · 25 · 60
217k
Full-site takeovers
4 takeovers
USD 50,000
200k
Memberships
300 members
USD 500
150k
Paid residencies
2 residencies
USD 50,000
100k
Performances
8 × 150 seats
USD 80
96k
Program weekends
26 × 12 guests × 2 days
USD 150
94k
Gallery, bar and shop
assumed
90k
Workshops
24 × 16 guests
USD 200
77k
Studio days
40 days
USD 1,800
72k
Earned
1.89M
Given
Patrons
yearly
500k
Brand partners
yearly
250k
Fellowships
6 fellowships
USD 30,000
180k
Grants
yearly
150k
Given
1.08M
64% of revenue is earned. Retreat prices include the cabin and meals; other cabin nights come only from program guests, because the Ojai Valley allows no stays under 30 days.
What it costs
About USD 29M, built in three phases.
We will build Bastion in three phases, and each one opens something people can use. On an Ojai basis the whole place comes to about USD 28.7M in the base case, within USD 28M to 45M, including land, approvals, design and contingency.1
Phase
What it builds
When
USD M
Phase 0
Approvals, studies and the pilot kit
2027 to 2028
0.9
Phase 1
The land, the amphitheater and sound system, the bathhouse, twelve cabins, a maintenance building, roads, water and fire safety
Built 2029, opens 2030
16.4
Phase 2
The studio and its gear, and the residence and home
Built 2029, opens 2030
8.6
Phase 3
The listening room and gallery barn with its kitchen, and the rest of the landscaping and artwork
2030 to 2032
2.8
Total project cost, base case (lean 28.0, full 45.2, stress 43.5)
28.7
Pre-opening and development overhead
2.05
Twelve-month operating reserve
3.7
Total uses of funds
34.4
The big lines, base case, before fees and contingency
The land, 5 to 50 acres: USD 1.0M to 2.0M
The amphitheater: USD 2.9M; the sound system: USD 1.0M
The studio, 2,500 sf: USD 3.0M; the gear: USD 1.0M
Twelve cabins: USD 3.6M; the bathhouse: USD 0.5M
The residence and home, 3,000 sf: USD 1.7M; maintenance and a staff unit: USD 0.5M
The gallery barn, 3,000 sf: USD 1.3M; its kitchen: USD 0.2M
Site work and fire safety: USD 2.9M; landscaping and art: USD 1.0M
What is added on top
Fees of about 21% and contingency of about 12% per phase, at the low end of our California cost research. The full case, mid-range prices on a harder parcel, is about USD 45M; in 2029 dollars the base is about USD 33M.
USD 2026, Ojai basis · † planning assumption · sources in the appendix
How it runs
A core team of eight, and the levers that close the gap.
The core team
CEO
COO
Fractional CFO
Head of programming
Head of operations
Head of marketing and partnerships
Gardener and groundskeeper
Cleaner
Chefs, studio engineers, live sound and extra housekeeping on changeover days are contracted for each program, about USD 250k a year.† Once all three phases are open, Bastion costs about USD 3.7M a year to run.1 The biggest lines are the team (USD 0.83M with payroll taxes and benefits), the residency program (USD 0.51M), property tax (USD 0.31M), and wildfire insurance and maintenance (USD 0.25M each).
Arcana taught us how to host people in the woods. Bastion adds what Arcana never had to run, a staffed studio, group programs, a licensed kitchen and evenings for 150 people, so our head of operations will be someone who has run hospitality and live events.
In the base case the yearly gap after giving is about USD 0.71M, which an endowment of about USD 16M would close.† Only the full case covers its costs, from 2033, with giving.
What moves the answer, base case once open†
One change at a time
A year
The gap after giving
USD −0.71M
Giving 50% higher
+USD 540k
Eight takeovers a year instead of four
+USD 279k
A nonprofit owner, with California’s welfare exemption
+USD 227k
Fuller retreats and weekends, 20 and 16 guests
+USD 209k
Program weekends almost every weekend
+USD 179k
Fourteen retreats a year instead of ten
+USD 147k
All of them together
A surplus of about USD 0.98M
No single lever closes the gap, and each one needs a decision, a donor or a permit. Together they turn the base case into a yearly surplus.
Who owns it
Two entities, kept honest.
The property company
Bastion Land & Lodging
What it is. A for-profit company that holds the real estate.
What it owns. The land and the twelve cabins, leased to the Institute at fair market value.
Who funds it. Founder and investor equity, with modest debt sized to what the cabins earn, about USD 2M in the base case.†
What investors get. A patient real-estate position. Under a camp permit the cabins earn about 5.8% a year on their cost, below the 8.0 to 8.5% at which buyers value a stable hotel, so this is patient or impact capital, not a hotel-style return.29, 1
Its board. Includes an independent member appointed with the Institute.
The nonprofit
The Bastion Institute
What it is. The cultural institute that runs Bastion. A fiscal sponsor accepts gifts for us now, and the Institute applies for 501(c)(3) status before the capital campaign.
What it builds. The amphitheater, the studio, the gallery and the landscape, paid for by gifts.
What it does. Runs the residencies, performances, gallery, workshops and retreats, and employs the team.
Who funds it. Programme income, patrons, foundations, brand partners and grants.
Its board. Five to nine members with an independent majority, including an artist of stature and an Ojai civic member.
How the two work together
The lease
The Institute leases the land and cabins from the property company at fair market value, set by an independent appraisal.
Related parties
A written related-party policy. Our co-founder Steve Tam holds options in Arcana, so any Arcana or Leckie Studio contract is priced at arm’s length and approved by independent directors.
Separate money
Investor money and donor money stay in separate entities and separate accounts. The alternative, a nonprofit owning everything under California’s welfare exemption, saves about USD 0.3M a year of property tax; we will decide with counsel before we buy land.
SECTION 05
The Plan
The permit, the neighbors, the road to opening night, the risks, and what we are asking for.
Zoning and the permit path
A real path to a permit, and it is the critical path.
Contract to opening
36 months
Our target, from a land contract to opening night†
Approved
2
Ojai camps with amphitheaters and overnight guests, 2025 and 202622
Appealed
1
The Krishnamurti camp, to the Board of Supervisors in 202530
The land. 5 to 50 acres already zoned Rural Agricultural, ideally Rural Institutional, outside any Williamson Act contract. SOAR rules out rezoning farmland until 2050, so we buy the right zone.31
One permit. A single camp use permit from the Planning Commission, with a schedule of amplified evenings written in and a 20 to 25 year term, the way Ojai’s camps are permitted. One parcel, one permit, no subdivision.
The gate. Before we buy, a written ruling from the county that residencies, recording and premieres fit the camp category.
The rules we design to. No stays under 30 days, outdoor lights off by 10 pm under the Dark Sky overlay, amplified sound off by 10 pm, and no reflective surfaces in public view.19
The permits we would need in the Ojai Valley · steps and costs in the appendix
A camp use permit. From the Planning Commission, with a schedule of amplified evenings written in; it can be appealed to the Board of Supervisors.
Environmental review. Under CEQA, alongside the permit; camps of this size have used a mitigated negative declaration.
Grading, drainage and road access. From Public Works, or Caltrans if the entrance is on Highway 33 or 150.
Fire approvals. From Ventura County Fire: water for firefighting, sprinklers in every building, fire-safe construction and 100 feet of cleared vegetation.
Water and wastewater. A Casitas water connection or a permitted well, and a septic system approved by Environmental Health.
Building permits. From Building and Safety once the use permit is granted, plus state approval for the factory-built cabins.
Operating permits. An organized camp permit, a food facility permit, a pool and spa permit for the bathhouse, lodging tax registration and, if needed, an alcohol licence.
Where the land search stands
Twelve Ojai listings are logged and none is confirmed as correctly zoned yet. Next comes a broker and a land-use attorney checking zoning, title and water on the best three.
Sound and the neighbors
Sound sets the size of the land, not the buildings.
Diagram · not to scaleDecided: the audience faces the view; the speakers fire uphill
Firing direction · decidedThe audience faces the valley, and the speakers fire uphill into the bowl and the slope behind the back row, never out over the valley.
The limitsAbout 50 dBA at nearby homes from 7 to 10 pm and 45 dBA after 10 pm. The one recent Ojai retreat permit caps speakers at 85 dB and ends music at 10 pm.32
The buffer0.5 to 1.5 km of open land in the firing direction, until an acoustician models the real site.†
Test before we buyA 72-hour sound log on the land, then a night playback from the stage position, measured at the boundary and at the nearest homes.
Keeping it inHorn and cardioid directivity give about 10 to 15 dB of rear rejection, and the hillside and earth berms do the rest. Most complaints come from bass, so the bass is steered hardest.
A good neighborLive monitoring at the property line, free neighbor seats at every premiere, and a named community liaison.
Risks
What could go wrong, and how we handle it.
Risk
Likelihood
Impact
How we handle it
The permitTakes longer, is cut down or is appealed
High for delay
Severe
Buy correctly zoned land or an already-permitted camp, get a written county ruling during escrow, file one master permit, and brief the community early.
Sound and neighbors45 to 50 dBA at homes at night32
High
High
Make sound a test of the land before we buy, keep a buffer in the firing direction, use horn and cardioid directivity, end by 10 pm, and monitor at the property line.
Wildfire and insuranceVery high fire hazard zones; FAIR Plan rates rising33
High for cost
Severe
An insurance quote as a condition of closing, fire-safe design, fuel clearance, water storage, a second access road, and no large events in peak wind season.
Water
Medium
High
Confirm the supply before closing, size the bathhouse and events to the allocation, and recirculate.
Construction costA base priced at the low end, escalation and tariffs
High
High
A cost consultant and Michael’s target cost before campaign goals are set, contingency layered on low-end prices with the full case (USD 45M) as the ceiling, scope phased to committed money, and a fixed-price cabin contract.
DemandFilling the program calendar
Medium to high
High
Pilots in 2027, pop-ups on the land from 2028, and pre-sold takeovers and a founding circle before Phase 1.
Key person
High
High
A founding board now, an executive director by Stage 1, and Bastion on its own budget and calendar, separate from Better Together.
PartnersArcana and Leckie Studio
Medium
Medium to high
A written agreement with Arcana, a second cabin supplier priced as a backup, and a California architect of record working with Michael.
Financing
High
Severe
Raise in stages tied to proof, sign no construction contract until a phase is fully funded, and seek patient and philanthropic capital rather than hotel equity.
The nameOthers use Bastion
Medium
Medium
Always pair it with the tagline, A Sanctuary for Sound, and run trademark searches before any public launch.
The ask
What we are raising first, and what it unlocks.
Stage 0, now to the end of 2027
USD 0.4M to 1.3M†
The first money goes to the work that decides everything else. It ends with land that has passed the sound, water and insurance tests, a written answer from the county, and proof that artists, audiences and partners will come.
Use
USD
Due diligence and studies on the best two or three parcels, with Michael’s test-fit and the acoustic tests
0.1M to 0.4M
Two pilot residencies and two pop-up premieres in 2027
0.16M to 0.53M
Legal structure, a fiscal sponsor, trademark and the executive director search
0.1M to 0.3M
Who we are asking
Founding patrons and family foundations for Stage 0 and the land; patient or impact capital for the land and cabins; labels and brands to underwrite residencies; and state and federal arts grants once the Institute has a track record, the way Tippet Rise, Storm King and Jacob’s Pillow were built.26, 27, 34
Bastion has its own budget and calendar, and it will not draw on Better Together’s first gathering in May 2027.
Then each stage is released by proof from the one before
Stage
When
USD
Own and entitleThe land, the permit and design. Released when a parcel passes the sound, water and insurance tests and the county confirms the camp category.
2027 to 2028
4.1M to 8.4M
Phase 1The amphitheater, the bathhouse and the twelve cabins. Released when the permit is approved, the appeal window has closed and the phase is fully funded.
2029 to 2030
16.4M
Phase 2The studio and the residence and home. Built alongside Phase 1 and released on the same terms.
2029 to 2030
8.6M
Phase 3The listening room and gallery barn with its kitchen, and the landscaping, then an endowment of about USD 16M. Released when the residency engine is proven.
2030 to 2032
2.8M
USD 2026, Ojai basis · † planning assumption · sources in the appendix
The next twelve months
Five decisions, and the first calls.
01
The parcel
Which land passes the sound, water, fire and insurance tests.
02
The entity
The two-entity structure, or a nonprofit that owns everything.
03
The evenings
How many amplified evenings a year, and how loud.
04
The operator
Who runs the place day to day.
05
The first cabins
How many cabins open with Phase 1.
Q4 2026
This deck, the model and the brief; land-use counsel◦ and a fiscal sponsor◦.
Q1 2027
A site shortlist with an Ojai broker◦; Michael and an acoustician◦ on a test-fit; pilot partners.
Q2 2027
Two pilot residencies and premieres; land under contract with a long close.
Q3 2027
The written county ruling, a 72-hour sound log and a night playback test, water, fire and insurance checks, then close.
◦ marks someone we have not contacted yet. Michael Leckie is our architect; an agreement with Arcana is still to come.
Bastion
A Sanctuary for Sound
We want to build the place where people remember how to listen. We would love you to help.
Better Together · October 2026Reference: Scripps Theater Center by Studio Gang, Hudson Valley Shakespeare · photo Jason O’Rear
Visual references
The Land
Ojai first: the pink moment on the Topa Topa range, oak hills and canyon water. Then the wider references: a long view, paths that turn arrival into a journey, architecture that sits lightly on the ground.
Images marked “Steve’s save” come from Steve’s Instagram collection “Bastion” and his Cosmos clusters, credited to the original accounts · reference only, not licensed for publication · click to enlarge
Visual references
The Amphitheater
Seats that follow the land, timber canopies that glow at dusk, and stages that frame the view instead of hiding it.
Images marked “Steve’s save” come from Steve’s Instagram collection “Bastion” and his Cosmos clusters, credited to the original accounts · reference only, not licensed for publication · click to enlarge
Visual references
The Studio & Cabins
Rooms with one big window, cabins that vanish into the trees, warm light at night, and seating in the spirit of Pierre Paulin.
Images marked “Steve’s save” come from Steve’s Instagram collection “Bastion” and his Cosmos clusters, credited to the original accounts · reference only, not licensed for publication · click to enlarge
Visual references
The Gallery
Listening rooms as works of art: the jazz kissa lineage, Devon Turnbull’s rooms, and spaces where the system is the altar.
Images marked “Steve’s save” come from Steve’s Instagram collection “Bastion” and his Cosmos clusters, credited to the original accounts · reference only, not licensed for publication · click to enlarge
Visual references
Sculptural Sound Systems
Horns as sculpture, from 1920s Western Electric to the people building listening systems as objects today.
Images marked “Steve’s save” come from Steve’s Instagram collection “Bastion” and his Cosmos clusters, credited to the original accounts · reference only, not licensed for publication · click to enlarge
APPENDIX
The Appendix
The material behind every page: how to read this deck and its sources, the brand directions, detail on the place and the buildings, the architect’s work, case studies, partners, the program, costs and Ojai.
Appendix · how to read this deck
How to read the numbers.
The basis. Figures are 2026 US dollars on an Ojai, California basis unless a page says otherwise. Some appendix pages still show the rural Northeast benchmarks they were built from, and say so.
The marks. A small number points to a source on the next page. A dagger † marks a planning assumption that real quotes will replace. A small circle ◦ marks a person or company we have not contacted yet.
The model. Every total in the main deck comes from one financial model, with lean, base, full and stress cases. The full model and its workbook open from The Financial Model.
Images. Photographs are credited on the page or in the lightbox. Reference images show places and work by others, are not ours, and are not licensed for publication. Renders are labeled.
Professional review. Acoustic, engineering, planning, legal and tax content is desk research for licensed professionals to confirm. Nothing here is investment, legal or tax advice.
The research behind this deck, October 2026
Land, zoning and permits in the Ojai Valley
Costs, economics and structure
The financial model and timeline
Feasibility and the investor case
Sound and acoustics
Architecture and landscape
Hospitality and operations
The bathhouse
Programming and artists
Gallery and curation
Brand and graphic design
Add ?labels=on to the address to see the working labels on every page.
Appendix · sources
Sources for the main deck.
Numbered as they first appear. All were read in October 2026. The research notes behind each page carry their own fuller citations.
Bastion financial model, October 2026. Workbook and full model page linked from The Financial Model. model/
Treehotel, Mirrorcube, from SEK 6,900 a night for two including breakfast (about USD 692 at the ECB rate of 14 October 2026). Arcana rates of CAD 525 to 625 a night before tax are from blogTO, May 2022, converted at the same date. https://treehotel.se/treerooms/mirrorcube/
A bastion is the part of a fortress wall built to stand firm, and over time the word came to mean a place that defends what it believes in. Bastion protects listening, and a star fort and an amphitheater are close cousins: both are earth shaped by hand to hold people. The tagline keeps it warm, because the walls are there to keep the noise out, never the people.
These three sketches were early explorations, and they are not the directions we will take, so we have blurred them here. We will design the identity properly before we show it. Ten others already use the name Bastion, so it always travels with its tagline. The early brand research follows on the next pages.
Appendix · The brand · the name check
Desk research · not a trademark search · not legal advice
Ten others already use the name, so it travels as a pair.
Hospitality, cocktail lounge with weekly jazz, Midtown Manhattan; group also lists Miami, Geneva, Houston
Bar Bastion (The Bastion Collection)
Michelin-starred restaurant and bar; guests encouraged to bring records and DJ
Bastion (Nashville)
Dutch hotel chain, about 34 hotels
Bastion Hotels
Boutique hotel and spa, Zadar, Croatia
Bastion Heritage Hotel, Relais & Châteaux
Music festival, Mallacoota, Australia
Bastion Festival
Music festival, Belgium
Bastion Festival (Kinrooi)
Live music venue, Dendermonde, Belgium
Bastion Vijf
UK independent record label (Lack of Afro)
Bastion Music Group
Hi-fi racks, stands and speaker isolation
Audio Bastion
Video game with an acclaimed soundtrack by Darren Korb
Bastion (Supergiant Games, 2011)
Keep Bastion as the name of the place: it is short, sounds solid, and the star-fort geometry gives the identity a real idea to draw from. It is weak as a stand-alone trademark, because hotels, bars, festivals, a label and an audio brand already use it in the classes we would need (hospitality, entertainment, recordings, audio). Pair it with 'A Sanctuary for Sound' on every first mention, plan for a compound legal mark (for example 'Bastion, A Sanctuary for Sound'), and have a trademark lawyer run USPTO, CIPO (Canada) and WIPO Global Brand Database searches before any public launch. This is research, not legal advice.
Appendix · The brand · siblings
Draft positioning
Three siblings, each with its own job.
BETTER TOGETHER
The community
Bastion is Better Together's permanent address for sound. Endorsed lightly ('a Better Together place') in small type, so Bastion can host artists and partners who do not know Better Together yet.
BASTION
The institute
A permanent home for sound in the forest, part of Better Together: an amphitheater, a recording studio ringed by havens, and a gallery of listening, joined by one path. Open to the community, not to the public.
ARCANA
The havens
Siblings, not a second location. Arcana is nature-first hospitality: guests come to restore, and the brand speaks to 'the Seeker'. Bastion is a cultural institute: artists come to make, and the community comes to listen. Arcana's havens appear at Bastion as a credited building block ('Havens by Arcana'), the way a great instrument maker is credited on a stage. Bastion should not borrow Arcana's lowercase wordmark, Favorit, signal yellow or the + sign; it can share the mirror skin, the vinyl room lineage and the principle 'guides, not gatekeepers'.
Appendix · The brand · audience and voice
Draft
Who it’s for
Resident artistsworld-class musicians and bands who stay one to two weeks.
The communityBetter Together members, beginners, locals.
Guests from abroad for takeovers, retreats and workshops.3) Guests from abroad for takeovers, retreats and workshops.
Partnerssound-system builders, audio and instrument makers, labels, foundations.
The wider culturepress, curators, listeners who meet Bastion through the premiere films and recordings.
How it speaks
Protective, not defensive
Rare, not exclusive
Precise, not technical
Quiet, not silent
Generous, not loud
In Steve’s voice: first person, full warm sentences, plain words, no slogans, no jargon, no em dashes.
Appendix · The brand · naming the places
Options for Steve to choose
Plain English or a musical register: names for every place on the path.
Place
Options
The amphitheater
The Bowl · The Hollow · The Listening Ground
The sound system
The Instrument · The Horn · The Voice
The studio
The Room · The Window · Studio One
The havens (six to ten)
Havens 01 to 10 (numbered, Arcana's word kept) · Named for musical intervals: Unison, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Octave · Named for the trees that stand beside each one, chosen once the site is known
The gallery (whole building)
The Listening Rooms · The Library of Listening · The Archive
Gallery: historic listening rooms
The Parlour · Room One: Before
Gallery: the kissa lineage room
The Kissa · The Record Room · Room Two: Lineage
Gallery: speaker progression room
The Horn Room · Room Three: Speakers
Gallery: rotating future room / pop-up
The Next Room · The Open Room · Room Four: Next
The path
The Walk · The Long Path
The bathhouse and the fire
The Fire · The Warm Ground
Direction 01 · sketch, not a logo
BASTION
A SANCTUARY FOR SOUND
The name is cut, not printed: letters carved into stone and timber, like a wall that holds the quiet.
Direction 01 · Inscription
Inscription
The name is cut, not printed: letters carved into stone and timber, like a wall that holds the quiet.
Limestone (ground)#E8E3D7
Basalt (ink)#262622
Corten (accent)#8E4A2A
Bastion
The walls keep the noise out, never the people.
Display: flared inscriptional capitals. Open license: Marcellus. Commercial: Optima Nova or Albertus Nova.
The markBASTION in wide flared capitals, each letter drawn as an incised V-cut: one hairline down the center of each stroke, the shadow side a shade darker. Monogram: a single B cut into a long low stone, held in a stadium shape. One idea: the cut.
PhotographyRaking light across surfaces at the edges of the day. Hands on stone, timber and brass. Black-and-white documentary of the making: stonecutting, the sound system being built and tuned. No people posed; craft shown close.
On the landKnee-high stone or rammed-earth markers along the path with the place names cut in and left unfilled. At night a low grazing light picks the letters out of the stone. The amphitheater's retaining wall carries one long inscription: the names of every artist who premiered there, added each year.
References: click any image for its credit and source
Direction 02 · sketch, not a logo
BASTION
34.45° N · 119.24° W · OJAI VALLEY (REFERENCE) · 150 SEATS · ONE PATH
A bastion's plan and an amphitheater's bowl are the same gesture, earth shaped to hold people, so the whole identity is drawn as contour lines.
Direction 02 · Contour
Contour
A bastion's plan and an amphitheater's bowl are the same gesture, earth shaped to hold people, so the whole identity is drawn as contour lines.
Survey Paper (ground)#EEEAE0
Deep Forest (ink)#18251F
Contour (accent)#B8693A
Bastion
The walls keep the noise out, never the people.
Display: extended technical capitals. Open license: Archivo at its widest. Commercial: Söhne Breit or ABC Diatype Expanded. Micrographics: Martian Mono.
The markFive nested hairline arcs with one dot below them: the seat rows and the stage seen from above. Turned on its side it reads as sound spreading from a source. Monogram: the angled point of a bastion drawn as one line around the same dot. Micrographics ring the mark: coordinates, elevation, seat count, a frequency line.
PhotographyTop-down drone photographs in flat, even light; long-lens views to the horizon; the same frame shot every season. Survey drawings, acoustic plots and Leckie's sections shown as images in their own right.
On the landAt arrival, a site plan in cast bronze with the contours in relief, to be read by hand. Along the path, small steel plates set flush in the ground like survey benchmarks, each giving the elevation and the distance to the Bowl. Seat rows numbered in mono on their risers.
References: click any image for its credit and source
Direction 03 · sketch, not a logo
Bastion
a Sanctuary for Sound
One warm light in a dark wood, borrowed from the jazz kissa and the record label: the place as a lamp you walk toward and a label you keep.
Direction 03 · Night Signal
Night Signal
One warm light in a dark wood, borrowed from the jazz kissa and the record label: the place as a lamp you walk toward and a label you keep.
Night (ground)#0E0F0D
Bone (type)#EDE5D4
Ember (light only)#E0A14A
Bastion
The walls keep the noise out, never the people.
Display: a high-contrast serif with a human italic. Open license: Instrument Serif and Instrument Sans. Commercial: Editorial New or GT Super.
The markA roundel: one thin circle with a small dot set just off center, like a record label's spindle hole or a lamp seen through trees. The name runs around the ring in tracked capitals. One idea: the light in the circle.
PhotographyNight and blue hour. One practical light per frame: a lamp, a fire, the stage glow. Long exposures, film grain, tungsten warmth. Listeners in silhouette, never posed. The day is shown only as the quiet before.
On the landLight is the signage. Low lanterns at knee height mark the path after dusk. The only illuminated sign on the property is a small glowing roundel at the gallery door, the way a kissa announces itself. Printed matter at matchbook scale: matchbooks, ticket stubs, record sleeves, a pocket map.
References: click any image for its credit and source
Appendix · The brand · side by side
Interpretation, not a decision
Contour by day, Night Signal after dark?
01 Inscription
02 Contour
03 Night Signal
The idea
Cut into stone and timber
Earth shaped to hold people
One warm light in a dark wood
Feels like
Permanence, craft, the long view
The land, the bowl, the survey
The kissa, the record label, the night
Strongest at
Signage on the land, the gallery
The site, maps, the amphitheater
Premieres, records, films, the night path
Watch out for
Can read as memorial or institutional
Can read as technical or cold
Can read as a bar, not an institute
Our lean is Contour as the daytime identity, with a Night Signal version for premieres, records and the path after dark. Inscription is the strongest for signage cut into the land. This is a starting point, not a recommendation from a studio.
Appendix · The property · the masterplan
Starting brief for Michael Leckie, not a design · distances are assumptions to test on real land
One path, about 1 to 1.5 km, and every step gets quieter.
Diagram · not to scaleArrival to the bowl: 12 to 20 minutes on foot
Core footprint
8 to 15 acres
Developed core about 8 to 15 acres inside a larger holding (land size to be set by the land research). Built: about 15,000 to 27,000 sf enclosed across five building groups.
Service
A loop at the back
A separate service loop at the back: trucks to within 10 m of the stage back-of-house, a studio load-in door, gallery loading. Guests walk; golf-cart path for accessibility doubles as fire access where code allows.
Parking
70 to 90 spaces
About 70 to 90 spaces for 150 guests, staff and residents (2.5 to 3 guests per car), about 0.6 to 0.8 acre of gravel, out of sight at the edge; shuttle for takeovers.
Phasing
The meadow first
Plant the meadow and run a sound trail first (meadows take 2 to 3 seasons; Klanghaus started as a trail). Then amphitheater with first havens, then studio and the rest of the havens, then gallery and the major commission.
Appendix · Site criteria
Working criteria · now tested against Ojai
Before we fall in love with a view, the land has to pass eight tests.
01 · View
A long view
A view the stage can face that people will travel for, ideally catching the sunset during premieres.
Must have
02 · Slope
A natural bowl
A hillside that already wants to be an amphitheater, so we carve less and the seats follow the land.
Must have
03 · Quiet
Low background noise
Away from highways and flight paths, with enough distance from neighbors that our sound is a gift to them, not a problem.
Must have · test on site
04 · Forest
Mature trees
Enough forest for cabins to disappear into and for the path to feel like a journey.
Must have
05 · Access
Reachable from abroad
A few hours from an international airport, close enough to a town for locals to join the workshops.
Range to set
06 · Season
A long outdoor season
A climate that allows open-air performances for much of the year, with a winter mode for the studio.
Range to set
07 · Permits
Zoning that allows it
Assembly, lodging and amplified sound all need approval. This can decide a site faster than anything else on this page.
Due diligence
08 · Size
Room for a buffer
Enough land for the three buildings, the cabins and a generous sound buffer at the edges. Acreage to be set with an acoustician.
Range to set
Appendix · The property · how we test a site
Due diligence, led by the sound test · for a land-use attorney and planner to complete
Before we fall in love with a view, we listen to it.
01
Listen first
A 72-hour ambient noise recording on the parcel, day and night, before any offer
02
Play it
An evening test playing music from the planned stage position, measured at the boundary and at the nearest homes
03
Zoning
A pre-application meeting with Ventura County planning about assembly, lodging and amplified sound
04
Water
Well yield and water rights, and whether the parcel is served by a water district or a managed groundwater basin
05
Fire
Fire hazard zone, access road width, water storage and fuel clearance the fire department will require
06
Septic
Perc tests for an engineered system sized for event peaks as well as overnight guests
07
Title
Easements, agricultural preserve contracts and conservation restrictions that limit uses or subdivision
08
Neighbors
Who lives within 1.5 km in the firing direction, and how they feel about music at dusk
03 · The property · arriving
The Threshold
Parking at the edge · then everything on foot
Draft · desk research
You leave the car at the edge of the forest and pass through a threshold: a walled, timber or hedged corridor that changes the pace before anything else does. Arcana already does this with the Passage, a woodland portal where guests pause and set an intention.
BudgetUSD 150k to 600k for the threshold (desk research, assumption)
What it doesSlows people down; the first artwork on the path
PrecedentsInsel Hombroich’s gravel passages; Chichu’s concrete entry; Teatro del Silenzio’s stone gateway
Already provenArcana’s Passage, run with guests since 2021
Photographs credited in the lightbox (click any image)
03 · The property · at night
Bastion at Night
One warm glow, not a lit campus
Draft · dark-sky rules from desk research
Dark-sky by default: fully shielded fixtures, 2700K or warmer (2200K preferred), knee-height path light, nothing above the horizon, performance light off at curfew. The night version is one warm glow in the bowl.
FixturesFully shielded, nothing above the horizon
Color2700K or warmer, 2200K preferred
PathsKnee-height light, just enough to walk by
CurfewPerformance light off at curfew; the stars come back
In OjaiA county staff report for an Ojai Valley retreat lists a Dark Sky overlay on its site (Ventura County, Ojai Retreat CUP); to confirm for any parcel
Lighting designUSD 80k to 300k for 100 to 150 dark-sky fixtures (desk research, assumption)
Photographs credited in the lightbox
03 · The property · the meadow
The Meadow
The slowest, cheapest, most important build
Draft · desk research
Plant the meadow first. It takes two to three seasons to read as a meadow, so it should go in while permits move. Designed gardens sit close to the buildings; the rest of the land is a native planting matrix the path moves through.
Native meadow5 to 15 acres at USD 2,000 to 15,000 an acre, with three seasons of establishment
Designed gardens0.5 to 1 acre, plug-planted, USD 15 to 40 per sf
Planting designerUSD 75k to 300k
TimingMeadow site prep in year 0 (a full season of weed control), seed in late autumn or winter, then about 2 to 3 seasons before it reads as a meadow; designed gardens plug-planted 1 to 2 seasons before opening; commissions 1 to 3 years from brief to install (assumption).
In OjaiA California planting designer would swap the Northeast meadow for a native, fire-wise palette near buildings (our interpretation, to confirm)
Steve’s savesThe garden photographs in the strip come from Steve’s Cosmos cluster “the garden”
Photographs credited in the lightbox
03 · The property · works in the land
Works in the Land
Sound you find along the path
Desk research · artists are precedents, no contact made
Our budgetUSD 1.0M for landscaping and artwork across the site (planning target); the commissions below are research prices
Major commissionUSD 0.75M to 3M for one land or light work (desk research, benchmarks)
Smaller works2 to 4 pieces along the path at USD 50k to 300k each
Sound worksUSD 0.15M to 1.5M at research prices; any we commission come from the USD 1.0M for landscaping and artwork
UpkeepWind and water instruments run cheaply but need care: Seattle’s Sound Garden fell into poor condition
Who has done this
Max Neuhaus (died 2009)Hidden, unmarked sound zone you notice when it stops. Times Square (1977); Time Piece Beacon at Dia:Beacon (2006). Dia maintains two of his twelve permanent works. No new commissions possible. Use as the model for a living artist: assumption USD 75k-200k.
Bill FontanaLive relay of a structure's hidden vibrations. Harmonic Bridge (2006): accelerometers on London's Millennium Bridge, played in Tate's Turbine Hall on Meyer speakers, engineering with Arup. Not public. Assumption USD 150k-500k with sensors and engineering.
Janet Cardiff and George Bures MillerMultichannel sound in a forest, or an audio walk. FOREST (for a thousand years...), dOCUMENTA (13), 2012: a 28-minute loop from small speakers in the underbrush, tree stumps as seats; shown again at UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, 2018. Not public (Forty Part Motet bought by the National Gallery of Canada in 2001, price undisclosed). Assumption: seasonal loan USD 75k-250k; new commission USD 400k-1.5M.
Ryoji IkedaLight and sound at landscape scale. spectra, shown at MONA every winter solstice. A recurring night event, not permanent. Assumption USD 250k-1M per presentation.
Hildegard WesterkampComposed soundwalk for the path, plus community workshops. World Soundscape Project; Kits Beach Soundwalk (1989). Benchmarks: municipal sound commissions EUR 20,000 (Limerick), GBP 30,000 (Eastleigh), USD 50,000 (Denver). Assumption USD 15k-60k.
Doug AitkenListening to the ground. Sonic Pavilion, Inhotim (2009): microphones in a 202 m well, five years from research to opening. Not public. Assumption USD 1M+; precedent only.
Wind and water instruments (Douglas Hollis, Tonkin Liu, Nikola Bašić)Acoustic sculpture with no electronics. Sound Garden, Seattle (1983); Singing Ringing Tree (2006); Sea Organ, Zadar (2005). Low running cost but real upkeep: the Sound Garden is in poor condition and closed since April 2025; Zadar budgeted about 1M kuna (about EUR 133k) a year for its installations (2016).
Photographs credited in the lightbox
04 · Building one · the bowl
The Bowl Is the Instrument
Before a speaker is switched on
Research for an acoustician to test
GeometryAbout 150 seats, 7 to 9 rows, fan of 100 to 130 degrees, rake roughly 22 to 27 degrees, furthest seat 12 to 16 m. Assumption for the acoustician to test.
Seat rowsStepped hard seat rows help: at Epidaurus they filter out low-frequency background noise and pass stage sound. Research.
CanopyOver the stage and front third, tilted to throw early reflections to the rear rows, timber slat underside for diffusion. A full-bowl roof becomes a 'shed' with more reverberation. Draft, after Tippet Rise and Arup.
Reflect and absorbReflective: stage floor, stage shell, canopy underside. Absorptive: planted ground behind the back row; no hard or concave wall facing the stage. Draft.
CoveragePoint-source or horn systems, not line arrays, for a throw under 16 m. Mains raised 4 to 5 m keep front-to-back level within a few dB. Research plus draft.
Listening level75 to 85 dBA for listening sessions, peaks of 95 to 100 dBA for electronic sets. Assumption.
Epidaurus, the Minack, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and the Hollywood Bowl: photographs credited in the lightbox
Appendix · Building one · the system
Desk research · costs are assumptions
Four ways to build the system, and a hybrid to start from.
Option AIn the recommended hybrid
The horn lineage, scaled outdoors
Large horn-loaded mid and high horns with bass horns behind the stage, in the jazz kissa, Loft and Ojas lineage. The system is the sculpture.
Dynamic, warm and alive at modest volume. Best for acoustic, jazz, vinyl and listening sessions.
USD 250k to 900k Builders: Ojas / Devon Turnbull with Global Audio (Public Records); Klipsch heritage team (Turnbull partner).
Option B
Point-source coaxial
Compact coaxial or multi-way point-source boxes, one or two per side, plus subwoofers.
Clean, coherent, accurate imaging, neutral.
USD 120k to 350k Builders: Danley Sound Labs (SH50 class, as at Doka Amsterdam); Fulcrum Acoustic. 'New Fidelity' from the brief could not be verified.
Option CIn the recommended hybrid
Touring-grade directivity, sculpturally housed
Meyer, d&b, Funktion-One or Void loudspeakers with cardioid subwoofers, inside a Leckie-designed sculptural housing.
Powerful, very controlled and consistent; a little anonymous.
16 to 64 loudspeakers around the bowl driven by object-based processing, for composition and premieres.
Enveloping; sounds can be placed and moved anywhere around the audience.
USD 250k to 800k Builders: d&b Soundscape (En-Scene, En-Space; Eno brothers at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus); L-Acoustics L-ISA; Envelop (nonprofit, 32-speaker venues, mobil
The recommendation Horn-lineage sculpture engineered like a touring system: horn-loaded mains, cardioid or end-fire bass horns, weather-rated drivers, DSP, in a roofed timber niche. Spatial ring as phase two. Draft. Our budget for the full system: USD 1.0M (planning target), within the research range of USD 400k to 1.2M, excluding the amphitheater structure (assumption anchored on a full Ojas home system that sold for USD 125k).
Appendix · Building two · the studio
Starting brief for a studio designer and Michael Leckie
The studio, room by room, with the view as the fourth wall.
Block diagram, not a plan2,400 to 4,850 sf
A big window in a world-class room is possible (Real World and Le Studio had one) but it is costly and has to be designed together with the walls. Keep the studio 200 to 400 m from the bowl, out of the speakers’ line of fire, and never tracking during a show.
Live room with the big window · 1,200 to 1,800 sfBand and ensemble tracking, the grand piano, variable acoustics, the view
Control room A · 350 to 500 sfMain tracking and mix room, Atmos-ready option, sightline through the live room to the landscape
Iso booth 1 (vocal) · 80 to 120 sfVocals and quiet sources
Iso booth 2 (amp / drum) · 100 to 150 sfLoud sources, small stone drum room
Production room B · 200 to 300 sfWriting and editing while A is tracking
Lounge and kitchen · 400 to 600 sfPierre Paulin seating, listening back, the view
Appendix · Building two · the studio
Desk research · list prices cited in our research notes
Everything a world-class musician needs, in three tiers.
1
USD 250k to 450k
SSL Origin 16 or API 1608-II class desk, curated outboard, about 30 mics, midfield monitors, hybrid DAW
2Recommended
USD 600k to 1.6M
SSL Origin 32 or loaded API 1608-II plus vintage Neve sidecar, ATC SCM300-class mains, deep tube and ribbon mic locker, tape machine, Atmos-ready
3
USD 1.5M to 3M
Restored large-format vintage Neve or SSL 4000, custom soffit-mounted mains, full Atmos 7.1.4 room, collector mic locker
The instruments · USD 300k to 900k at research prices
Steinway Model D (or B) concert grand
Hammond B3 with Leslie 122
Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer
Hohner Clavinet
Mellotron
Celeste and vibraphone
Minimoog Model D, a polysynth set and a modular case
Two or three drum kits (vintage Ludwig and modern), cymbal library, percussion
Upright bass
10 to 15 guitars and basses, 6 to 8 amps
A small world-instrument and found-sound collection made on site
Our budget: USD 1.0M for the gear and instruments together (planning target). At these research prices that covers tier 1 with the core instruments, or the bottom of tier 2.
Appendix · the bathhouse
The quietest room at Bastion.
We want one bathhouse for everyone who stays at Bastion, built the way Japan bathes. You leave your shoes and your phone at the door, wash sitting down, soak in hot water, sweat in the sauna, plunge into cold water and then rest outside until your body goes quiet. Michael's charred timber and slatted light make it feel like a lantern in the oaks at night. It is where residents end their day, where retreats begin theirs, and where a full takeover moves through in calm, timed groups.
C.K. Tse, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Daici Ano, courtesy Kengo Kuma and Associates
Azumi Setoda (photographer not credited on the page)
Unimoi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
C.K. Tse, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
01
Arrive
Shoes off at the genkan, phone in a cubby, a cup of water or tea. Voices drop here.
02
Wash
Sit on a low stool and wash fully, then pour warm water over your body (kakeyu) before you enter any bath.
03
Soak
Five to ten minutes in the hot bath, up to 104°F (California's cap), indoors or in the outdoor rotenburo. The towel stays out of the water.
04
Heat
Five to ten minutes in the sauna, in silence, facing one framed view.
05
Cold
Rinse off the sweat, then thirty seconds to two minutes in the cold plunge, about 55 to 63°F.
06
Rest
Ten to fifteen minutes in the open air on the engawa. This is totonou, the calm the whole circuit is for.
Size and cost, Ojai basis
Enclosed 850 to 1,570 sf, plus 930 to 1,720 sf outdoors; 16 to 20 people in the circuit at once.
Our budget USD 0.5M (planning target), below the compact version studied here.†
Research hard cost USD 0.92M compact to 3.23M full, about USD 1.86M at the planning midpoint; USD 1.2M to 4.7M with design fees and contingency.
Time 20 to 36 months from design to opening.
The rules that shape it
Every shared bath is a regulated public pool in California: 104°F at most, its own filtration, and light stone over concrete rather than wood.
Hinoki fits only a private fill-and-drain tub. The sauna starts electric; a wood-fired one comes later only if Ventura County Fire agrees.
Charred timber needs a fire-rated wall behind it, and a five-foot noncombustible strip can become a raked gravel garden.
Appendix · Building three · the gallery
Curatorial plan from desk research · costs are assumptions needing quotes · no lenders contacted
Six rooms you can actually listen in.
Room 1
The Machine That Listened
Before electricity, recorded sound was pure mechanics: a needle, a diaphragm and a horn, with no amplifier anywhere. Edison recorded "Mary had a little lamb" on tinfoil in 1877, and by 1881 Paris could hear the Opéra live over telephone lines in two channels.
Three fixed 30-minute comparison sessions a day (11:00, 14:00, 16:00), a host plays about ten machines in turn: the Kanazawa Phonograph Museum model. Originals operated b USD 60k to 185k
Room 2
The Voice of Action
In 1926 Western Electric's Bell Labs and Warner Bros. put amplified sound into cinemas with Vitaphone, and The Jazz Singer followed in 1927.
One picture-palace session a day, 20-30 minutes, 12-20 seats: a short sound film and 78s through the horn system. Technician-only operation. USD 100k to 420k
Room 3
The Kissa
Japan's first jazz kissa opened around 1929, and after Art Blakey's 1961 tour they spread into the hundreds: small rooms where a record played whole on a great system and nobody talked. At Basie in Ichinoseki, opened in 1970, Shoji Sugawara has tuned one JBL system for more than fifty years.
Open hours, one side of one record at a time, requests by written card, no talking. A weekly silent session after Bar Shiru's Silent Sundays. USD 110k to 345k
Room 4
The Dance
In 1950s Kingston, sound systems like Tom the Great Sebastian, Duke Reid's Trojan and Coxsone Dodd's Downbeat built their own speaker boxes and turned yards into dancehalls. In New York, David Mancuso's Loft (first party 14 February 1970) put audiophile Klipsch horns on a dance floor, and Richard Long's Paradise Garage system (1977-1987) added bass horns named for Larry Levan.
Loft-style evening sessions: records played whole, no mixing tricks, low light. Sound-system sessions on takeover weekends. USD 145k to 365k
Room 5
A Century of Speakers
A hall of loudspeakers in the order they were invented, from the 1925 paper cone to the beam-steering arrays now in Sphere, all wired to one switcher so you can hear the same record move through a hundred years. It ends in a contemporary listening room built by a living maker, the way galleries now commission Devon Turnbull to build rooms as artworks.
A/B sessions twice a day: one record, five speakers, the host switches. The commissioned room runs booked 45-60 minute album sessions. USD 300k to 800k
Room 6
The Future Room
The last room changes. Makers, inventors and spatial-audio artists move in for one to three months, install their work, and often premiere something alongside the amphitheater residents.
Open-studio hours during installs; premiere sessions; timed 30-minute sessions once a work is up. USD 120k to 400k
We have not budgeted the gallery’s contents yet. The six rooms studied here run USD 0.84M to 2.5M for objects, loans, fabrication and fit-out, before the building. Running the gallery: about USD 70k a year in our base case plus the core team’s time (research: USD 105k to 340k a year including staff).
Appendix · Building three · the gallery
Desk research · 25 dated milestones, cited in our research notes
A century and a half of listening, on one wall.
1877Edison records "Mary had a little lamb" on a tinfoil phonograph built at Menlo Park.
1881Clément Ader's théâtrophone carries the Paris Opéra live to the Electrical Exhibition in two channels, from 80 transmitters along the stage.
1925Rice and Kellogg at General Electric publish the moving-coil cone loudspeaker; RCA sells it as the Radiola 104.
1926Vitaphone, from Western Electric's Bell Labs, premieres with Don Juan; The Jazz Singer follows in October 1927.
1929The first jazz kissa opens in Tokyo.
1946Paul Klipsch starts selling Klipschorns from a tin shed in Hope, Arkansas (prototype 1938, patent 1945).
1947Tannoy introduces the Dual Concentric driver.
1948Columbia unveils the 33 1/3 rpm long-playing record in New York.
1950Tom Wong founds Tom the Great Sebastian, the first great Kingston sound system.
1958At Expo 58, Varèse's Poème électronique moves through about 350 loudspeakers in the Philips Pavilion by Le Corbusier and Xenakis.
1961Art Blakey tours Japan and the jazz kissa multiply into the hundreds.
1970David Mancuso's first Loft party, "Love Saves the Day", on 14 February.
1970Shoji Sugawara opens Basie in Ichinoseki around one JBL system.
1977Paradise Garage opens with Richard Long's system and the Levan horns (until 1987).
1977Max Neuhaus installs Times Square, a sound work hidden under a subway grate.
1988Pauline Oliveros coins "Deep Listening" after recording in an underground cistern in Port Townsend.
1993La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela's Dream House opens at 275 Church Street, New York.
2005Nikola Bašić's Sea Organ opens on Zadar's waterfront, played by the waves.
2009Doug Aitken's Sonic Pavilion at Inhotim plays the live sound of a 202-meter well.
2012Dolby Atmos debuts at the El Capitan Theatre with Brave.
2013Brilliant Corners opens in Dalston with Klipschorns and its Played Twice sessions.
2019Public Records opens in Gowanus with an Ojas and Global Audio system.
2023Sphere unveils HOLOPLOT beamforming arrays: about 1,600 permanent modules and 167,000 drivers.
2025Klanghaus Toggenburg opens in the Swiss Alps as a walk-in instrument.
Appendix · Building three · the gallery
A decision for Steve and Michael
One house of rooms, or four pavilions in the meadow?
OPTION A
One building
a calm sequence of arched plaster rooms (Lantern House, Monos) behind a charred-timber or concrete shell.
OPTION B
Four pavilions
Four pavilions in the meadow, joined by the path (Insel Hombroich), which solves sound bleed between listening rooms by distance instead of mass
Separate pavilions solve sound leaking between listening rooms and let the gallery grow one room at a time; one building is cheaper to run and easier to keep warm and dry for vintage equipment.
Appendix · The language
Our reading of the work, for Michael to correct
Six moves that run through Leckie's buildings.
01
Frame the view
Camera House is literally an optical instrument: openings aimed at the forest, the valley and the mountains.
02
Disappear
Arcana's mirror skin lets the forest swallow the building. Only the warm room inside remains.
03
Dark outside, warm inside
Charred or black timber shells, with pale timber, plaster and firelight within.
04
Light through timber
Slatted ceilings and screens that filter daylight into lines. A natural canopy for the amphitheater.
05
A room built for sound
Lantern House gives the hi-fi its own calm, symmetrical room. The audiophile shows.
06
Built as a kit
Prefabricated, component-based systems designed for remote land. Exactly what a forest site needs.
Appendix · Leckie Studio
Retreats & Cabins
Arcana, Camera House, the Backcountry Hut on Fogo Island and the Great Lakes Cabin: dark forms, one warm window, and the land right up to the glass.
All images from leckiestudio.com, from Leckie Studio’s own site · photographers credited per project · click to enlarge
Appendix · Leckie Studio
Rooms for Listening
Lantern House has a dedicated listening room. Around it: calm plaster and timber rooms, filtered light, and Monos’ glowing arches.
All images from leckiestudio.com, from Leckie Studio’s own site · photographers credited per project · click to enlarge
Appendix · Leckie Studio
Timber, Land & Light
Hringurrin’s glowing landform, Spearhead’s mass timber, and houses that step with the slope. Sections included, because the land shapes everything.
All images from leckiestudio.com, from Leckie Studio’s own site · photographers credited per project · click to enlarge
Appendix · Case studies
Five places that already do part of this.
A sound chapel in the mountains, a retreat on the cliffs, an experimental town in the desert, an island of art, and a sculpture park in the Hudson Valley. Click a place to open its case study.
Appendix · The partner map
Draft · categories
Six kinds of partner, each tied to one part of the place.
Amphitheater
Sound system builders
The designers and makers who could build the sculptural system and tune it on site.
Ask: co-design, a flagship install
Amphitheater · Studio
Acoustic design
Acousticians and studio designers who model the bowl, the studio and the neighbors' side of the hill.
Ask: feasibility study, then design
Whole site
Architecture & landscape
Michael Leckie of Leckie Studio is the architect. Still to find: a landscape designer for the path and the bowl.
Architect confirmed · landscape open
Cabins
Cabins & hospitality
Arcana, which our co-founder Steve Tam helped found, for the havens and what it has learned about hosting people in nature, plus retreat operators who already do this well.
Ask: cabins, operating know-how
Studio · Gallery
Audio brands & collections
Makers of studio gear, instruments and speakers, and collectors of historic equipment for the gallery.
Ask: gear, loans, pop-up showcases
Programming
Labels, residencies & culture
Labels, residency programs, festivals and listening-bar founders who could co-program and bring artists.
Ask: co-programming, artists
Appendix · Candidates
Architect and Arcana: Steve’s networkEveryone else: from desk research, candidate, no contact made
A first list of names to explore.
Appendix · Precedents
From desk research · facts cited in our research notes
Nobody has built the whole thing. Many people have built one part of it beautifully.
Takeaways in italics are our interpretation. Full sources are in our research notes.
Appendix · Potential partners · program
Candidates from the programming research · no contact made, except Arcana
Labels, festivals and listening rooms that could program with us.
Co-programmer and anthology release partner
Real World (Studios, Records, WOMAD)
Takeover partner; model for co-branded releases
Mexican Summer with Ballroom Marfa
Co-producer of the elder-and-younger residency
RVNG Intl. (FRKWYS)
Spiritual-jazz takeover
International Anthem
Winter piano residency, Piano Day
Erased Tapes and LEITER
Exchange partner
PEOPLE (Berlin)
Exchange residency
Klangwelt Toggenburg
Advice on the guest-curator model
Ojai Music Festival
Advice on the open call; alumni nominations
Pioneer Works
Partner-agreement residency slot
Fogo Island Arts / Shorefast
Retreat curriculum and facilitators
Center for Deep Listening (RPI)
Album playbacks in the amphitheater and gallery
Pitchblack Playback
Takeover weekends; traveling listening rooms
Public Records, Brilliant Corners, Bar Shiru
Future room; an immersive layer for premieres
L-Acoustics
Underwrite the gallery listening room and the system
Klipsch, Ojas / Devon Turnbull, USM
Spatial-audio workshops and the pop-up room
Envelop
One co-produced premiere broadcast a year
Boiler Room
A monthly Bastion radio hour
dublab
Hospitality; host of the year-zero pilot
Arcana
The dance-side takeover, if wanted
Garbicz-lineage stage crews, All Day I Dream-type day events
Appendix · a year at Bastion
The year follows the light.
Residencies
8
Two weeks each, one in four paid by a label or the artist, the rest underwritten
Premieres
8
Once, at dusk, for about 150
Takeovers
4
A label or collective takes the whole site for three days
Retreats
10
Four days of listening and making for 12 to 16 people
Program weekends
26
Listening weekends and member programs
Workshops
24
Field recording, speaker building, production and deep listening
Spring
The first residencies of the year, and workshops for people who live nearby.
Summer
A premiere every few weeks at dusk, and the takeovers.
Autumn
Retreats for creative practice, and the last premieres by the fire.
Winter
Longer studio-only residencies, the archive, and tuning the system.
These are base-case counts once all three phases are open.1 Large evenings are capped by the permit, about 12 a year in our plan, and end by 10 pm. Before anything is built, the 2027 pilot runs two residencies in borrowed rooms and two pop-up premieres.
Appendix · Programming · the residency
Draft proposal · fees are assumptions
Artists keep their music. Bastion keeps the premiere.
Selection, year oneInvitation only. Steve (or a guest music director) invites, informed by a confidential circle of 8 to 12 nominators, the way the Foundation for Contemporary Arts picks its USD 45,000 grantees.
Selection, year two onA rotating guest music director each year (the Ojai Music Festival model) and one or two open-call slots for emerging artists, read by a jury that includes past residents (Pioneer Works) with every application read twice (Red Bull Music Academy).
Length12 to 14 days, one act at a time, up to five musicians plus one collaborator, ending in a premiere at dusk. Winter residencies run 3 to 4 weeks, studio only.
The artist getsA fee in three tiers (assumption: emerging USD 5k to 10k, mid-career 15k to 30k, established 40k to 75k), travel and freight, visa support, a haven, all meals, the studio around the clock, an in-house engineer, a system tuner, the premiere multitracks, the film for their own channels, and an access and care allowance.
Bastion getsThe world premiere of the site-specific piece, a non-exclusive license to the premiere film and recording, an archive master, a 'Commissioned by Bastion' credit, one community session per resident, and a first option (not an obligation) to release the piece.
Rights and royaltiesThe artist owns the composition and the masters of everything made here. Bastion owns the film, with a sync license for the premiere audio. Any commercial release of film or recording only by agreement, with a revenue share (draft 50/50 of net). Precedent: Red Bull Music Academy paid for everything and owned none of the music.
Label optionNo label in years one and two: an annual licensed anthology with a partner label, as Real World's 1991 recording week became label releases and a compilation. A small imprint, license deals only, from year three if the work warrants it.
MacDowell: no residency fee, need-based stipends and travel grants. Pioneer Works: USD 3,000 for a one-month music residency, no housing or travel. RBMA: two-week terms, about 60 a year. PEOPLE: a week of residency across 40 studios, then a festival. PRS Composers' Fund up to GBP 15,000; ACE DYCP GBP 2,000 to 12,000.
Appendix · Programming · year one
Draft · artists are aspirational archetypes, no contact madeDates assumed a Northeast season; Ojai’s mild climate could stretch it
Seven residencies, two takeovers, three retreats: a first year.
When
Format
Who (archetype)
Notes
Late May
Opening weekend
Better Together members and neighbors; Steve hosts
First public tuning of the system, a listening session in the kissa tradition, one free neighbors' night.
June, solstice week
Residency 1 and premiere
An ambient elder paired with a younger producer (Laraaji archetype)
The FRKWYS elder-and-younger pairing; premiere at the year's latest dusk.
Late June
Residency 2 and premiere
A folk songwriter, the cabin-record archetype (Adrianne Lenker, Justin Vernon)
Recorded to tape in a haven; acoustic premiere, the system used lightly.
July
Takeover 1 (3 days)
A label that already programs places (Mexican Summer, International Anthem, RVNG)
The label books and pays its artists; Bastion gives the site, crew and system; ticket income shared.
July
Residency 3 and premiere
A composer who builds from site sound (Hildur Guðnadóttir, Ólafur Arnalds)
The piece starts from the land's own recordings; a local choir or ensemble joins.
August
Residency 4 and premiere
Listening-first electronic (Floating Points, Jon Hopkins)
Written for the sculptural system; a one-time premiere, as Promises was at the Hollywood Bowl.
August
Takeover 2 (2 to 3 days)
A listening bar or a forest-stage crew (Public Records; a Garbicz-lineage selector)
Long sets over lineups; check noise limits before any dance-side weekend.
September
Residency 5 and premiere
Experimental, writing for one system (Kali Malone)
Living Torch was composed for GRM's Acousmonium loudspeaker orchestra: the precedent for a piece written for Bastion's system.
September
Residency 6 and premiere
Spiritual jazz and improvisation (Carlos Niño and friends)
Played live in the bowl and edited after; doubles as a radio session.
Late September
Retreat 1 (4 to 5 days)
Deep Listening facilitators
Curriculum from the Center for Deep Listening; members and beginners together.
Early October
Residency 7 and premiere
Spatial and immersive (Christopher Willits)
Last premiere of the season, by the fire; doubles as a spatial-audio workshop.
October
Retreat 2 (3 days)
Better Together beginners' retreat
First instrument, voice, writing one song; residents and the engineer teach.
November to March
Winter residency (3 to 4 weeks)
A studio artist (Nils Frahm archetype)
No premiere; the piece opens year two.
Winter
Retreat 3 and Piano Day
A selectors' retreat hosted by Steve
The Loft and kissa lineage, how to listen, how to build a set; Piano Day (the 88th day of the year) as an open day.
Monthly, May to October
Workshops (1 to 3 days)
Residents and guest teachers
Field recording, speaker building, production basics, DJing and selection, deep listening; school visits.
Twice a year
Future-room showcase
Envelop, L-Acoustics, Ojas
Brand-funded pop-ups in the gallery, tested on the amphitheater stage.
Once, optional
The overnight
The Max Richter Sleep archetype
Only if noise limits and neighbors allow.
Appendix · Programming · artists
Aspirational archetypes · no contact made · each one already made music from a place
The kind of artist Bastion is for.
Archetype
Laraaji
Ambient elder who also teaches (Laughter Meditation workshops) and still plays with younger artists.
Brian Eno found him busking in Washington Square Park in 1979; Ambient 3: Day of Radiance followed in 1980.
Archetype
Christopher Willits
Executive director of Envelop, the immersive-audio nonprofit; teaches spatial audio and meditation.
His work runs through Envelop's immersive rooms and open-source spatial audio tools.
Archetype
Floating Points
Proof that a listening-first electronic work can fill an amphitheater.
Promises had a one-time world premiere concert at the Hollywood Bowl on 20 September 2023.
Archetype
Jon Hopkins
Music made from a place, premiered as a listening session.
Music for Psychedelic Therapy (2021) opens with field recordings from 200 ft down in Cueva de los Tayos, Ecuador; it premiered at a Pitchblack Playback session at L-Acoustics Creations.
Archetype
Kali Malone
Writes for specific instruments and loudspeaker systems.
Living Torch (2022) was composed at GRM in Paris for the Acousmonium loudspeaker orchestra.
Archetype
Nils Frahm
A studio obsessive who built a global day around one instrument; the winter residency archetype.
Tripping with Nils Frahm (2020) was filmed at Funkhaus Berlin; he created Piano Day in 2015.
Archetype
Justin Vernon (Bon Iver)
The cabin record, and a co-founder of the PEOPLE residency-festival.
For Emma, Forever Ago was recorded alone in his father's hunting cabin in northwestern Wisconsin, November 2006 to January 2007.
Archetype
Adrianne Lenker
A haven as a studio.
songs and instrumentals were recorded 22 April to 23 May 2020 in a one-room cabin in Westhampton, Massachusetts, analog only, with wind, chimes and birdsong in the record.
Archetype
Ólafur Arnalds
Local collaborators and a film for every piece.
Island Songs (2016): seven songs in seven places in Iceland over seven weeks, each with a local collaborator, filmed by Baldvin Z.
Archetype
Hildur Guðnadóttir
Builds music entirely out of a place's sounds.
The Chernobyl score was made only from recordings at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, Lithuania, in August 2018, with Chris Watson.
Archetype
Max Richter
The overnight format.
Sleep has been performed overnight to audiences in beds since 2015; in Los Angeles' Grand Park in 2018, 560 beds, timed to end at dawn.
Archetype
Carlos Niño
The connector: producer, percussionist and radio voice; co-produced André 3000's New Blue Sun; helped found dublab.
Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople (2025) is titled for a place; how it was made is unverified.
Archetype
A Garbicz-lineage selector (for example HOVR)
From Steve's own listening; long forest-stage sets; the dance side of a takeover, if Bastion wants one.
HOVR's nearly two-hour set on Garbicz Festival's Lichtung stage, 2026 (analyzed in Steve's vault).
Appendix · Programming · guest journeys
Draft · revenue per booking is an assumption
Five ways to arrive, five journeys through the place.
1 to 2 weeks
Recording residency
Band of 4 to 6 + engineer (+1 guest) · 1 to 2 weeks
Pre-arrival call with the studio manager: the record, gear list, the site-specific piece
Arrival on the Passage, havens, a dusk walk of the whole site, first dinner at the pavilion
Days 2 to 3: listening and setup; play the empty amphitheater
Days 4 to 10: studio days with 24-hour access; bathhouse and fire every evening to play back the day
Days 11 to 13: rehearse the site-specific piece on the stage
Premiere at dusk for about 150, filmed
USD 35k to 70k a booking
3 to 4 days
Retreat
10 to 20 + 1 to 2 facilitators · 3 to 4 days
Afternoon arrival on the Passage
Opening circle at the fire
Mornings: listening, movement or making
Shared lunch at the long table
Open afternoons: studio sessions, gallery, trails, sauna
Evening listening session in the gallery or by the fire
USD 35k to 70k a booking, at USD 3,500 a guest all in
2 to 4 days
Full-site takeover
About 150 · 2 to 4 days
Site visit, run sheet and permits weeks ahead
Shuttles from partner inns, check-in at the edge of the site, glampers walk in
Days: workshops, gallery, timed sauna sessions, dinner service
Evenings: the amphitheater program, after-hours listening in the gallery
Staggered shuttle departures, a full reset day before the next booking
USD 50k to 150k a booking
1 to 3 days
Workshop day
15 to 40 locals and travelers · 1 to 3 days
Morning arrival by shuttle or car
Welcome at the pavilion
The session: deep listening, field recording, speaker or instrument building
Lunch
Afternoon making
A sauna or listening session to close, out by dark
USD 2k to 16k a booking
One evening
Performance evening
150 seats at USD 80 · One evening
Arrive at golden hour
Walk the lit path
A drink at the pavilion
Seated at the amphitheater for dusk
The piece, then a short conversation with the artist
The walk back by low light, shuttles out; residents stay for the fire
USD 12k a booking
Appendix · Programming · the budget
Assumptions from desk research · excludes land, building and running the site
Year one of the program: USD 651k to 2.0M.
Line by line
Artist fees (8 residencies, three tiers)
USD 140k to 270k
Artist travel, visas, freight
USD 32k to 120k
Residency hospitality (chef, food, housekeeping)
USD 40k to 96k
Studio session support (assistant engineer, system tuner, backline, media)
USD 24k to 80k
Premiere nights (7)
USD 56k to 175k
Takeovers (2), Bastion's share
USD 20k to 80k
Retreats (3), gross
USD 24k to 75k
Workshops, neighbors and schools
USD 20k to 60k
Gallery future-room showcases (2)
USD 10k to 50k
Premiere films (7)
USD 70k to 315k
Flagship film (optional)
USD 0k to 200k
Other content (photography, immersive mixes, radio, archive, anthology, guides)
USD 40k to 150k
Program staff: our head of programming (engineers and crew are contracted)
USD 101k
Guest music director and nominator honoraria
USD 10k to 40k
Access and care fund
USD 5k to 25k
Contingency (10%)
USD 59k to 184k
The content engine, per item
Premiere film (per premiere) 3 to 6 crew for 2 days, 5 to 12 edit days, color and mix. Basis: US camera operator and editor median wages a
USD 10k to 45k
Flagship film (one a year, optional) 20 to 40 minutes, in the Long Pond Sessions or Island Songs tradition. Assumption.
USD 80k to 250k
Immersive mix of a premiere Per piece, for spatial playback and the archive. Assumption.
USD 2k to 6k
Residency photography Per residency. Assumption.
USD 2k to 4k
Monthly radio hour or podcast Per episode, with dublab or similar. Assumption.
USD 0k to 2k
Annual anthology (vinyl and digital) Mastering, lacquers, 500 to 1,000 records, sleeves; licensed pieces. Assumption.
USD 8k to 25k
Archive (storage, cataloguing, web) Per year. Assumption.
USD 10k to 35k
Listening guides (publishing) Per year; the gallery's knowledge in print and online. Assumption.
USD 5k to 20k
Plausible offsetting income from tickets, retreat fees, takeover partners and sponsors: USD 0.15M to 0.7M. Later years: roughly USD 0.8M to 2.6M a year.
Appendix · demand
Who comes, and what we can show today.
Who comes
Artists. World-class musicians and bands for two weeks, and people just beginning, side by side.
The community. Better Together members, neighbors and locals, who fill the premieres.
Guests who travel. For retreats, takeovers and workshops, from Los Angeles and from abroad.
Partners. Sound-system builders, labels, foundations and brands who underwrite and showcase.
The evidence today
Arcana’s Ontario cabins sold out fall and winter in 48 hours, spring in 90 minutes and summer in 40 minutes, as reported in 2022.12
MacDowell received 2,618 applications for one 2026 season and accepted 5%.2
Ojai is short on rooms: twelve hotels in the city, no short-term rentals, and weekend rooms under USD 250 are rare.25
The Better Together community starts with 419 people from three of our gatherings since 2023, and its first large gathering, for about 300 people, is in May 2027.
What the 2027 pilot will test†
We believe
The test
Artists will come to the land
Two residencies with artists of stature, both premieres filmed
Premieres fill from the community
Two pop-up premieres sell out, half the seats to members and neighbors
Partners will underwrite
One label, brand or foundation underwrites a residency
The right land exists
A shortlisted parcel passes the sound test and gets a written county ruling
Guests will pay for the program
One paid retreat and one program weekend sell at the planned price
Appendix · the team once open
A core team of eight, on Ventura County wages.
Role, base case once open
USD k a year
CEO
209
COO
135
Fractional CFO, about a third of full time
63
Head of programming
101
Head of operations
99
Head of marketing and partnerships
98
Gardener and groundskeeper
63
Cleaner
60
Staff, with payroll taxes and benefits
828
Contract services: chefs and kitchen help, studio engineers, live sound, extra housekeeping†
250
Wages are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the Oxnard, Thousand Oaks and Ventura area, May 2025, with payroll taxes and benefits added, as built into the financial model.1
Before opening, leadership is paid from the development budget; the core team is in place for the 2030 opening, and the fractional CFO works about a third of full time. Arcana-style hospitality is the part we know; the studio, the kitchen and events for 150 run on contracted crews hired for each program.
OPTION A
OPTION B
01
02
03
04
05
06