Jean-Michel Jarre "En Attendant Cousteau/Waiting for Cousteau"

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, in 11 June 1990. 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 extreme stylistic differences from his other albums. The album reached Number 14 in the UK charts.

The title track is a composition in the ambient style and an edited version of the music he produced for Concert d'Images (English: Concert of Images), an exhibition which contained photographs and selected objects from Jarre's concerts. The original plan was to release the album edit of the track as a promo CD single, but those plans were abandoned. On vinyl and cassette tape the title track was edited to only 22 minutes due to the lack of space on the formats.

Jarre utilised the unedited version as an ambient audience "warm-up" in the hours prior to the Paris la Defense concert in 1990 (and also in many concerts after this "first"), played on the specially installed public address sound system scattered throughout Paris for this event.

Early promos for the album had the title track named "Cousteau on the Beach", but was renamed later, because Jacques-Yves Cousteau thought beaches are an environmental disaster.

Calypso Part 1 contains samples previously heard in the tracks Zoolookologie and Moon Machine, the former appearing on his 1984 album Zoolook, and the latter as the B-side to the single Fourth Rendez-Vous and later appearing on the compilation album Images.

The last track En Attendant Cousteau was also used in the soundtrack to a documentary entitled "Palawan: Le Dernier Refuge" by oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Jean-Michel Jarre.

CD Edition

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

Vinyl Edition

Side one

1. "Calypso Part 1" 8:24
2. "Calypso Part 2" 7:10
3. "Calypso Part 3 (Fin de Siècle)" 6:28

Side two

1. "En attendant Cousteau" 22:00