Live sessions at Tapetown: a band, one room, one take
Tapetown Studio in Aarhus, Denmark, has recorded and filmed fully live sessions since 2016: no overdubs, no click track, audio first. More than 75 sessions so far, including Iceage, The Murder Capital, Mikal Cronin, Moaning, Bambara, The Fresh & Onlys, Ulrika Spacek, Les Big Byrd, Pale Honey, Mint Field, The Psychotic Monks and Elias Rønnenfelt, and the 2022 KEXP sessions at SPOT Festival, which Tapetown recorded and mixed. Rasmus Bredvig, who founded the studio in 2011, records and mixes the sessions with Gustav Scheel.
What a Tapetown Session is
A Tapetown Session is a band playing a song the way it plays it on stage, captured on multitrack in a room built for it and filmed at the same time. Nothing is replaced afterwards: what you hear is the take. We mix the session from that multitrack on a hybrid analogue chain, master it, and deliver audio and video ready to release. The format exists because a live take carries things a layered studio production cannot, and because a session is the cheapest honest record a band can make of where it is right now.
Where we record
At the Djursland studio or on location: we have recorded or mixed sessions from a bowling hall, a glass museum, breweries, a festival hall and the Great Hall at Musikhuset Aarhus. From 2027, The Reserve at Friland on Djursland, a short drive from Aarhus, adds a 400 m² complex with around 200 m² of studios, art space and accommodation, built for exactly this.
What you get
The full multitrack recording, a mixed and mastered audio master per song, the film, and files cut for YouTube, Instagram and press. Sessions can premiere on the Tapetown Sessions channel, which has carried sessions picked up by Stereogum, Destroy//Exist, Joy of Violent Movement, Nordic Music Review and AnalogueTrash, or go out through your own channels. Our guide to how music blogs cover live sessions explains what to do with the files.
What it costs
Tapetown quotes each session individually, because a one-song session for socials and a four-song filmed set with full mix and master are different jobs. Tell us the band size, the songs and the dates and you get a number within two working days.
Who books sessions
Touring bands passing through Denmark who want a release-quality document of the tour line-up; Danish bands ahead of a release; festival artists at SPOT, where Tapetown has recorded or mixed sessions most years since 2017; labels and media who need a session produced to broadcast standard, as KEXP did.
Live session questions
Can you record at our venue or rehearsal room? Yes. Most of our recent sessions were on location; we bring the recording rig and treat the room as part of the sound.
Do we need to be signed, or to have played SPOT? No. The archive runs from debut Danish bands to Iceage.
Can you mix a session someone else recorded? Yes, and we do it often: send the multitrack, a board mix and the setlist. See live recording mixing.
Is it really one take? Yes. We keep the take the band chooses, including the moments that would be edited out of a studio record.
Do you master the session too? Yes, as one continuous piece so the levels stay consistent across songs.