Temple of Sound

JUNGLE CITY STUDIOS

Ann Mincieli, the impassioned recording engineer and retro techno geek, is intent on bringing back the glory days of the recording studio to Manhattan. Her sleek, newly opened Jungle City Studios sits atop a Chelsea loft building, steps from the High Line and at the heart of the city's art scene. What's more, Jungle's architect and acoustician, John Storyk (who, in 1969, de signed Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios in the Village), has added win dows, of all things-giving the space a sweeping skyline view that serves as an insnirational backdron to this modern antithesis of the old recordine cave.

Mincieli's combination of meticulously restored EMI consoles from the 60s and 70s and cutting-edge digital suites for recording and ed iting has top artists (Bono with Swizz Beatz, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys) flocking to her door. Think Aretha Franklin's first recording of "Re spect"-in 1967-at the old Atlantic Records hothouse in Midtown and you start to get the idea. Mincieli's motto seems to be: When everyone else is downsizing, go grand.

BASIL WALTER