Creative Studio was a studio located in Sofiemyr on the southeast side of Kolbotn. The studio is best known for its role in recording Mayhem‘s classic 1987 EP “Deathcrush” and Darkthrone’s albums “A Blaze in the Northern Sky” and “Under a Funeral Moon”. Additionally, Mortem, Saints & Sinners, and Beyond Dawn also utilized Creative Studio. However, in all three releases by Mayhem and Darkthrone, the studio is referred to as “Creative Studios”. Looking back at newspapers from the 1980s and 1990s, the studio is consistently named “Creative Studio”. The exact date of the studio’s closure is unknown, but the last mention of it in The National Library’s newspaper collection is in 1998 when Roy Bjørnstad used the studio for his latest record. However, both Håvard Svendsrud and Ingunn Bjørgo recorded their records there in 2003. Creative Studio was deregistered from Brønnøysundregistrene (the national business registration company for businesses in Norway) on June 15th, 2011.

The studio was owned by Harald Synnes, and the local radio station also broadcasted from Creative Studio, airing on FM 103.4. In 1995, Creative Radio held a talent competition where artists could submit their demo tapes. In an article in Østlandets Blad from November 1st, 1995, in an interview with Harald Synnes, he mentioned that the only limitation for the competition was that they did not want to feature “extreme music genres, like black metal.” This statement came just a few years after the church burnings and murders, suggesting a desire to distance themselves from the genre. This could explain why no other black metal bands used the studio after Darkthrone in 1993.

The location of Creative Studio was within a small shopping mall called Landerudsenteret. The mall changed its name in 2014 and is now known as Sofiemyr Senteret. Today, it houses Rema 1000, a pharmacy, La Paz Grill, a gym, and more.

ADDRESS:
Sønsterudveien 32, 1412 Sofiemyr, Norway

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