Studio Zuma is a Ljubljana-based music studio owned and operated by Chris Eckman, an American musician (The Walkabouts, Chris & Carla, The Strange, Dirtmusic) and co-founder of Glitterbeat Records. Some of the Slovenian artists who have passed through Zuma in recent years include Vlado Kreslin, Tomaš Pengov, Širom, Katalena, Brina, All Strings Detached, The Frictions, Niko Novak and Polona Kasal.
Eckman has been resident in Ljubljana since the early 2000s, and Zuma was originally located at his home on Slomškova ulica. It then moved to premises on Poljanska cesta for a number of years, and is now situated in the Glitterbeat building in the centre of the city.
Because of its size, Zuma is primarily a mixing, editing and overdubbing facility rather than a full recording studio, although almost every record in which Eckman is involved, as musician or label boss, will make a stop there at some point. Nevertheless, a handful of records have been fully or mostly recorded at Zuma, including Fly High Brave Dreamers by Chris & Carla (2007), Shotgun Pillowcase by Terry Lee Hale (2007), Crossing Dragon Bridge by Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate, 2008) and, more recently, Lonely Hymns and Pillars of Emptiness (2020), the debut solo record by Iztok Koren of Širom.
Eckman has also recorded full soundtracks at Zuma, primarily for two major Slovenian directors: Maja Weiss (The Memories of Angela Vode (TV film, 2012), Dar Fur: War for Water (documentary, 2009, in collaboration with Tomo Križnar), Installation of Love (2007, feature)) and Martin Turk (Feed Me With Your Words (2012, debut feature), Room 408 (2009, TV film)).
The studio is built around a late 1970s small-format Studer mixing desk. Eckman also uses a Universal Audio valve compressor and A-Designs Eqs, a strong selection of vintage East German microphones (Neumann/Gefell, including a CMV-563 valve model from the early 1970s), and a wide selection of analogue and digital effects, including a Roland RE-201 tape echo, a favourite of dub pioneer Lee Scratch Perry.
