HARD LOUNGE by SIMON HERODY

Simon Herody, originally from the South of France but living in Berlin since 2020, delivers an eight-track suite of ambient-informed Jazz.

The album grew out of solo gigs in hotel lobbies, low-key half improvised sets where Simon blended sequenced electronics with live sax, clarinet and flute. These in-between spaces, half-public and half-private, set the tone for Hard Lounge: an eight-track trip that's ambient enough to fade into the background, but rich enough to keep you engaged.

There's a clear love for 80s New Age and Electronic Jazz, but it's not just nostalgia - the album also channels leftfield Japanese Pop and Ambient. A big turning point was hearing Heisei No Oto (that killer compilation on Music From Memory) & Music For Dance & Theatre, Vol. 2, also released on MFM, which blew the doors wide open in terms of texture and mood.

While working shifts at Motif, a bar and record shop in Neukölln, Simon started deep-listening to these kinds of records, thinking about how sound can shape space and attention. Design and architecture trickled into the album's artwork, hinting at a broader idea: that music, like furniture or lighting, can be part of how a space feels - part of the design. That blend of curiosity and immersion became the blueprint for Hard Lounge, a record that plays with presence, atmosphere and memory.