01 / ALPA ESCAPES
From the Academy to the ALPA Escapes.
Over the past year, we have taken our Master Classes a step further. The ALPA Academy has become ALPA Escapes, born from the conviction that learning is at its most powerful when it is combined with extraordinary experiences, new perspectives and genuine inspiration.
ALPA Escapes bring together exceptional places, people and photographic experiences. They create time for photography and for a different way of looking at the world.
In 2027, we are taking this idea one step further with something entirely new within ALPA Escapes: the ALPA Signature Escapes.
THE ALPA SIGNATURE ESCAPES
Signature Escapes are individually curated experiences built around a specific question or theme related to photography, developed in collaboration with inspiring external partners. Held only once a year and limited to six to eight participants, each escape creates the intimacy and freedom for encounters and photographic explorations that larger groups cannot offer.
02 / SIGHT + ANOTHER SENSE
In this first series of ALPA Signature Escapes, we explore the interaction of our senses and how they may inspire the way we photograph. Each edition connects sight with another sensory perception – scent, touch, speed, taste… You name it.
THE ORIGINS
The iconic LINN Sondek LP12 turntable.
A shared pursuit of precision.
What started in Scotland in 1973 as a manufacturer of superbly engineered turntables has evolved into one of the world’s leading manufacturers of premium audio systems, renowned for its uncompromising pursuit of acoustic precision. It is hard to imagine a better partner for SIGHT & SOUND.
Both our companies, ALPA & LINN, share a pursuit of perfection in the result – be it sound or image. But more than that we also share a philosophy of sustainability and a belief in products that endure over time, in contrast to today’s trend of planned obsolescence.
DISCOVER LINN
ACT I / SOUND
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND
The journey begins with a day at LINN. Gilad Tiefenbrun offers an insight into the challenges of developing and manufacturing audio systems of exceptional acoustic precision, followed by a guided experience at the LINN facilities.
We then join Phil Hobbs for an intimate “Learning to Listen” workshop. Much like a whisky tasting, we learn to distinguish subtle nuances, textures and layers of sound – and to understand how they are composed and perceived in space.
WITH GILAD TIEFENBRUN & PHIL HOBBS
Gilad Tiefenbrun
Son of LINN founder Ivor Tiefenbrun, Gilad joined the company in 2003 and has served as CEO since 2009. Under his leadership, LINN has evolved from its analogue roots into a manufacturer of highly sophisticated streaming audio systems.
Phil Hobbs
Phil Hobbs is one of Britain’s leading recording engineers for classical music and jazz. In 2020, he received the Prise de Son award and became the Royal Academy of Music’s first Visiting Professor of Recording. His collaborations include The Dunedin Consort, The Tallis Scholars and Phantasm, as well as artists ranging from Jon Lord to Sir Paul McCartney.
FROM SOUND TO SIGHT
The journey continues to Skye with photographer Julian Calverley, whose connection to the Scottish landscape reaches back to childhood. Here, listening and seeing become part of the same exercise in perception – an invitation to slow down and become more sensitive to the subtleties that shape both sound and image.
ACT II / SIGHT
ISLE OF SKYE, SCOTLAND
Original photographs of Skye by Julian Calverley.
Tides. Wind over the Cuillin ridges. The silence between two gusts. The white-sand beaches, turquoise water, rugged rock formations and the long weather of Skye are not merely seen; they are felt as a changing acoustic field.
WITH JULIAN CALVERLEY
Shaped by light and sound.
An ALPA Ambassador since 2006, Julian Calverley has shaped a distinctive practice between landscape and advertising photography. The Scottish Highlands have formed his visual vocabulary since childhood and sound has always been a part of how he encounters the landscape: through weather and rhythm, through silence and time.
On Skye, Julian offers us a way into the conditions between dawn and dusk.
MEET JULIAN
OUR HOME ON SKYE / CUILLIN HILLS
A retreat above Portree Bay.
For five days, the Cuillin Hills Hotel becomes the group’s base and retreat. Set within extensive private grounds above Portree Bay, it looks across the Sound of Raasay towards the peaks of the Cuillin Mountains — the landscape in which we will work together.
The original Portree Lodge was built by the Macdonald family in 1865 as a Scottish shooting lodge. Since the 1960s, the house has welcomed guests as the Cuillin Hills Hotel.
DISCOVER CUILLIN HILLS
TRAVEL THROUGH THE LANDSCAPE
Between these points: Land Rover Defenders, changing weather, roads without hurry and a small group moving together into the landscape.
The journey.
14 MARCH 2027
15 MARCH
16 MARCH
16–20 MARCH
21 MARCH
PARTICIPANTS 6–8 MAX
PRICE CHF 9,500 PER PERSON
Preliminary schedule; details may change.
ALPA SIGNATURE ESCAPE | NO. 1 / 2027
If this journey speaks to you, express your interest below. Participation is limited to six to eight guests. We will be in touch personally with further information.
Patrick Lambertz
Hans KEIST