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En attendant Cousteau

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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.

En attendant Cousteau
Studio album by
Jean-Michel Jarre
Released11 June 1990
StudioCoral Sound studio, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
Croissy studio, Paris
Length1:08:57
LabelDisques Dreyfus
ProducerJean-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]

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 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

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CD edition

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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

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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

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Personnel listed in album liner notes:[8]

Charts

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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

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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

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  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. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Jean Michel Jarre – Waiting For Cousteau" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
  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. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
  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.
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