Stéphane Pompougnac

A prince of the turntable, Stéphane Pompougnac is a DJ who is a fixture at mix parties, and a benchmark when it comes to tailor-made lounge compilations. For the past ten years, the Hôtel Costes series has been a model in terms of selection by the master craftsman, who has also released original albums: Livin' on the Edge in 2003, and Hello Mademoiselle, in 2007. While the Hôtel Costes compilations came to an end in 2011 with volume XV, Stéphane Pompougnac signed his third album in 2014 with Bloody French.

Stéphane Pompougnac was born in Paris in April 1968, to a psychotherapist father and a dentist mother, but spent his childhood in the Bordeaux region, where he went on to make a name for himself as a DJ in clubs such as Ubu, The Colony and The Dream.

When he came of age in Paris, he found a job as a waiter at the famous Café Costes. A regular at club nights, Stéphane Pompougnac became a regular DJ at Le Queen, Le Palace and Les Bains-Douches. It was there in 1997 that he met Claude Challe (author of the famous Buddha Bar series). Challe introduced him to the art of mixing and selecting tracks for compilations. The young Pompougnac immediately set to work, proposing to the manager of his former establishment, Jean-Louis Costes, that he produce a compilation for the hotel's clientele. Hôtel Costes, Volume 1 was a huge success when it was published in 1999.

From then on, the series became a fixture on the lounge compilation scene, appearing once a year, and in the best-selling album charts at the end of the year. The success continues, thanks to a careful selection and meticulous production.

At the same time, Stéphane Pompougnac developed solo albums with original material. Livin' on the Edge (2003) features R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe on the track "Clumsy", and Hello Mademoiselle is released in 2007. The Hôtel Costes series comes to an end in 2011 after the release of Hôtel Costes XV, leaving lovers of a refined lounge sound somewhat orphaned. The DJ returns to the recording scene with Bloody French in 2014, featuring Charles Schillings on one of the tracks.