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En attendant Cousteau
Studio album by
Released11 June 1990
StudioCoral Sound studio, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
Croissy studio, Paris
Length1:08:57
Label Disques Dreyfus
Producer Jean-Michel Jarre
Jean-Michel Jarre chronology
Revolutions
(1988)
En attendant Cousteau
(1990)
Images - The Best of Jean-Michel Jarre
(1991)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic [1]

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.

Originally, Jarre intended to call it 'Cousteau sur la plage (Cousteau on the beach)', but it was changed on 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 two tracks from that documentary did not appear on the final album. [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]

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.TitleLength
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

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Calypso Part 1"8:24
2."Calypso Part 2"7:10
3."Calypso Part 3 (Fin de Siècle)"6:28
Side two
No.TitleLength
1."En attendant Cousteau"22:00
Total length:44:02

Personnel

Personnel listed in album liner notes: [8]

Charts

Chart (1990) Peak
position
Austrian Albums ( Ö3 Austria) [9] 19
Finnish Albums ( Suomen virallinen lista) [10] 11
German Albums ( Offizielle Top 100) [11] 27
Spanish Albums ( AFYVE) [12] 37
Swedish Albums ( Sverigetopplistan) [13] 22
Swiss Albums ( Schweizer Hitparade) [14] 21
Dutch Albums ( Album Top 100) [15] 27
Norwegian Albums ( VG-lista) [16] 11
UK Albums ( OCC) [17] 14

Certifications and sales

‹See Tfd› ‹See Tfd›
Region Certification Certified units/sales
France ( SNEP) [19] 2× Gold 550,000 [18]
Spain ( PROMUSICAE) [20] Gold 50,000^
Summaries
Worldwide 1,550,000 [18]

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ^ a b En attendant Cousteau at AllMusic
  2. ^ "aerozonejmj". aerozonejmj.fr. 2014-03-27. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  3. ^ "UK Music charts". EveryHit.com. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
  4. ^ "Aerozonejmj". aerozonejmj.fr. 2019-03-03. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  5. ^ Conductor Of The Masses - Issue 5. UK: Conceptual Publishing. July 1991. p. 30.
  6. ^ AMI (Algorithmic Musical Instrument) By Cadenza Software. However, likely the name should be ACT (Algorithmic Compositional Tool), which "generates random musical output, based on user-defined notes, which can be controlled in real time using a GEM interface or a MIDI source", as listed on https://www.ataritoday.com/extra/.
  7. ^ "Aerozonejmj". aeorozonejmj.fr. 2019-01-19. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  8. ^ Waiting For Cousteau (booklet). Disques Dreyfus/Polyodr. 1990. 843 614-2.
  9. ^ "Austriancharts.at – Jean Michel Jarre – En attendant Cousteau" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  10. ^ Finnish charts:
    • Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 168. ISBN  978-951-1-21053-5.
    |- "Discography Jean-Michel Jarre". finnishcharts.com. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  11. ^ "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  12. ^ Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN  84-8048-639-2.
  13. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Jean Michel Jarre – En attendant Cousteau". Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  14. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Jean Michel Jarre – En attendant Cousteau". Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  15. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Jean Michel Jarre – En attendant Cousteau" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  16. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Jean Michel Jarre – En attendant Cousteau". Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  17. ^ "Jean Michel Jarre | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  18. ^ a b Fitzmaurice, Larry (22 May 1993). "Around The French Companies". Billboard. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  19. ^ "French album certifications – J-Michel JARRE – En attendant Cousteau" (in French). InfoDisc. Select J-MICHEL JARRE and click OK. 
  20. ^ Sólo Éxitos 1959–2002 Año A Año: Certificados 1979–1990 (in Spanish). Iberautor Promociones Culturales. 2005. ISBN  8480486392.

External links