En attendant Cousteau
1990 studio album by Jean-Michel Jarre
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En attendant Cousteau (English title: Waiting for Cousteau) is the tenth studio album by French electronic musician and composer Jean-Michel Jarre, released on Disques Dreyfus, licensed to Polydor. The title is a reference to the play Waiting for Godot.
Croissy studio, Paris[b]
| En attendant Cousteau | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 11 June 1990 | |||
| Studio | Coral Sound studio, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago[a] Croissy studio, Paris[b] | |||
| Length | 68:57 | |||
| Label | Disques Dreyfus | |||
| Producer | Jean-Michel Jarre | |||
| Jean-Michel Jarre chronology | ||||
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Originally, Jarre intended to call it 'Cousteau sur la plage (Cousteau on the beach)', but it was changed at the last moment. A promotional tape contained this title.[2]
The album was dedicated to Jacques-Yves Cousteau and was released on his 80th birthday 11 June 1990. AllMusic described the album as "groundbreaking stuff", due to its stylistic differences from his other albums.[1] The album reached Number 14 in the UK charts.[3]
En attendant Cousteau is divided into two distinct stylistic halves: the first three pieces titled "Calypso" and the title track, an ambient piece which was used in the soundtrack of a 1991 documentary entitled "Palawan: Le dernier refuge" by Cousteau and Jarre. However title track from documentary did not appear on En attendant Cousteau.[4]
The title track was also played at Jarre's exposition Concert d'images in Paris, 1989. According to a Jarre fan-magazine,[5] it was created via an app on an Atari Mega-ST,[6] on which Jarre programmed 16 starting notes. He apparently got the idea from the book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. He denied it in a later interview, claiming all notes are actually played by hand, noting however that the track includes some time-stretched samples mixed into the background.[7][8]
Jarre performed the album for about 2.5 million people at the Paris La Défense concert on 14 july 1990, featuring The Amoco Renegades, a steel-drum band from Trinidad and Tobago.
Track listing
CD edition
All music is composed by Jean-Michel Jarre.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Calypso Part 1" | 8:24 |
| 2. | "Calypso Part 2" | 7:10 |
| 3. | "Calypso Part 3 (Fin de Siècle)" (End of the Century) | 6:28 |
| 4. | "En attendant Cousteau" (Waiting for Cousteau) | 46:55 |
| Total length: | 1:08:57 | |
Vinyl and cassette edition
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Calypso Part 1" | 8:24 |
| 2. | "Calypso Part 2" | 7:10 |
| 3. | "Calypso Part 3 (Fin de Siècle)" | 6:28 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "En attendant Cousteau" | 22:00 |
| Total length: | 44:02 | |
Personnel
Personnel listed in album liner notes:[9]
- Jean-Michel Jarre – keyboards
- The Amoco Renegades – steel drums
- Guy Delacroix – bass
- Christophe Deschamps – drums
- Michel Geiss – keyboards
- Dominique Perrier – keyboards
Charts
| Chart (1990) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[10] | 19 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[11] | 11 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[12] | 27 |
| Spanish Albums (AFYVE)[13] | 37 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[14] | 22 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[15] | 21 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[16] | 27 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[17] | 11 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[18] | 14 |
Certifications and sales
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| France (SNEP)[19] | 2× Gold | 550,000[20] |
| Spain (Promusicae)[21] | Gold | 50,000^ |
| Summaries | ||
| Worldwide | 1,550,000[20] | |
|
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||