Recording on Djursland: Why Tapetown Is Building Its New Studio at Friland
Tapetown is building its new home at Friland on Djursland, about 30 minutes outside Aarhus, opening in 2027: a 400 square metre complex called The Reserve, with around 200 square metres of studios plus art space and accommodation for visiting bands. Djursland is the peninsula east of Aarhus that reaches into the Kattegat; Friland is an experimental, debt-free community near Rønde where the houses are built from straw, clay and wood fibre. We bought a large part of a former warehouse and workshop building there, inside a Danish nature reserve, and we are turning it into rooms built for acoustics first. Until it opens we record at our recording studio on Djursland, mix at our mix studio in Aarhus, and mix and master online for artists anywhere.
Where Djursland is
Djursland is a hilly lowland peninsula of about 1,400 square kilometres in eastern Jutland, split between Syddjurs and Norddjurs municipalities, with around 80,000 people. Its largest towns are Grenaa, a seaport with ferries to Sweden and to the island of Anholt, and Ebeltoft, a tourist town with a ferry to Zealand. Mols Bjerge National Park, established in 2009, covers part of the south, including coast, seabed and open hills kept clear by grazing. Aarhus Airport is on Djursland, about 41 kilometres from the city. For a band, that means an airport, two ferry ports and Denmark's second city within reach, and mostly fields and coast in between.
What Friland is
Friland sits at Ravnen 4, 8410 Rønde. It is an experimental community where residents cannot borrow against their land or houses, where price caps stop speculation, and where each household is expected to run a business or have a workplace at home. Houses are built from straw bales plastered with clay and insulated with wood fibre, sheep's wool, flax or hemp, some on foundations of mussel shells. Residents treat their own wastewater and aim to produce very little waste. Visitors are welcome to walk around the houses and gardens.
Part of the area is zoned for business, which is how a recording studio ends up there. A studio that hosts bands for days at a time fits a place built around people working where they live, and the quiet is the point: there is no traffic to mix around and no neighbour above the control room.
Why recording moved out of the city
Tapetown started in 2011 at Feedback in Viby, the Aarhus studio that closed that year, and in 2012 we co-founded Lydhavnen, a community of twelve music businesses in a former meatpacking district that opened with local-authority support. Our Lydhavnen recording studio, above a 300-capacity venue, has since closed; the Tapetown mix studio in Aarhus is open and operating, and recording has moved to our studio on Djursland. Ten years of live sessions in the city taught us what the next room needed: space, quiet, control over the building, and the chance to build rooms for acoustics from the floor up rather than adapting someone else's walls. Friland gives us a building we own a large part of, in a nature reserve, with, as the build page puts it, a lot of space to record.
What we are building
A 400 square metre complex, The Reserve, with around 200 square metres of studios, plus art space and accommodation. The old floor tiles from the building's warehouse years have been taken up and are being reused as storage along the side of the building and as the base of a small outdoor stage. Under the new concrete floor goes underfloor heating. An engineer has to assess the roof's load capacity before we take roofing quotes. Insulation and floors were the first work after a long planning phase on materials, budget and people; dividing the rooms, built for acoustics, comes next. The acoustic consultant, who posts as @hterkel, has built several studios and venues and advises on construction and treatment. Meanwhile the mix room has a new equipment rack, and several compressors, including 7110 units, have moved into the recording setup. The studio build page carries the diary in order: the announcement, removing the floor, roof planning, materials arriving.
What it means for bands
Recording away from a city changes a session. Nobody leaves at six, there is no load-in through a bar, and the room is yours for the length of the record. Our recording studio on Djursland already works this way; the Friland building will do it with rooms designed for it, and accommodation on site so a band can stay for the length of the record. We will publish travel details and the opening date on the studio page as they are fixed. Mixing and mastering do not wait for 2027: we mix remotely now, hybrid analogue, with attended sessions across time zones.
Who is building it
Rasmus Bredvig, owner and manager, has run Tapetown for about 15 years, recording and mixing the Tapetown Sessions with Iceage, The Murder Capital, Elias Rønnenfelt and others, and well over 100 releases. Troels Damgaard Holm is lead recording engineer, with credits including First Hate, Blaue Blume, When Saints Go Machine and Turquoise Sun. Gustav Scheel mixes indie, folk and Americana. Together the team has worked with more than 150 artists.
FAQ
Where is Friland?
On Djursland in eastern Jutland, Denmark, at Ravnen 4, 8410 Rønde, about 30 minutes outside Aarhus by car, in a nature reserve, and roughly 40 kilometres from Aarhus Airport, which is also on Djursland.
When does the new Tapetown studio open?
In 2027. The Reserve is a 400 square metre complex with around 200 square metres of studios, art space and accommodation. Insulation and floors are underway and the rooms are built next. The build diary on the studio build page is updated as each stage finishes.
Can we record at Tapetown before 2027?
Yes. We record at our recording studio on Djursland while The Reserve at Friland is built, and the Tapetown mix studio in Aarhus is open. Write to us with your dates and song count through the contact page and we will quote the project; days in the studio and the number of songs set the price.
Does Tapetown still mix online while the studio is built?
Yes. Mixing and mastering are online for artists anywhere, hybrid analogue, with attended remote sessions. The build does not change that.
Follow the build
The studio build page has the diary and photos, and the studio page describes the current setup and the team. If you want to record on Djursland before or after the opening, the contact page is the place to start.
