Jean-Michel Jarre - En Attendant Cousteau

Hydrosphere

I prefer to review ambient music so let me briefly comment on the first three "Calypso" tracks: FF> FF> FF>. Upon hearing track #4 "En Attendant Cousteau" I felt I was wading in shallow Jarre waters. But halfway through the third playing I realized I was swimming in deep ambient seas. A surreal depth of layered oceanic music. Light euphotic sparkling sounds filter down into aphotic middle pseudo-organic tones. With increasing depth finally abyssopelagic tides rise and counterpart up to balance this hydrospheric masterpiece. Here Jarre has proven he has an ambient soul. November 23, 2006

One of his best

especially the log melody "En attendant Cousteau" will provide you with endless hours of relaxation and posibly meditation too. November 10, 2006

cool Jarre

For those "fans" that didn't get it, Jarre didn't leave the sequencers and computers running while he went to lunch. The 46 minute piece is the soundtrack to a documentary on Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the famed French marine-biologist. That's why it's ambient and mellow. Make sense now? As for the Calypso parts, they are named after the Cousteau Society's three exploration boats: Calypso, calypso II, and calypso III. That's it. Nonetheless, Jarre's trademark sound is on board with lush pads. November 7, 2006

Now if only he'd followed this path a little further...

The first three tracks are old Jarre--very pleasing. The last track is new Jarre... except he never really did this again after this album. How very disappointing. I mean who knew that Jarre could do good modern ambient!?

That last track, if you listen to it VERY CLOSELY, MANY, MANY TIMES, will grow on you until you are aching to hear it again. It's as good as any Brian Eno--and if THAT'S not a compliment I don't know what is!

Ahhh, the power of good ambient music; like a comfy chair. May 18, 2005

I feel ripped off...

This is the strangest Jarre's album since his 1976 debut. It has a central association, obviously, the underwater world as it was filmed by Jarre's famous compatriot Cousteau. Many noises and background sample sounds relate to this topic. However, musicwise, this is a very inconsistent album.

It starts off with a faster track, that has a tropical dance feeling to it. This particular track has been selected numerous times as a source for all kind of radio and TV jingles. The other two "Calypso" tracks are typical Jean-Michel Jarre, with medium to slow tempo, multilayered synths, sampled voices, and a melody that can be stuck in your head for some time. It all sounds somewhat similar to the first track off his 1984 "Zoolook" or the better parts of 1986s "Rendez Vous".

But the central piece of this album, the 46 minutes long, ambient title track, is what ruins this album for me. I know, it's revolutionary for Jarre, as this is something that he never tried to accomplish before. But it doesn't give it any more value in my book. I admit, I'm not a fan of ambient, and that might be the source of a problem. But really, how can you appreciate a track, when you clearly understand, that, be it 20 minutes shorter, or 20 minutes longer, you won't feel any difference at all? I cannot grasp neither its structure, nor its melody, nor its message. Maybe that's what ambient was made to be, I don't know. But I have to literally glue myself to the chair to sit this track through. And that doesn't even guarantee me from falling to sleep.

Musical experimentation is usually okay with me. But when the track that I continuously fail to understand occupies three fourths of a CD, that's a problem. Considering that you can get 2 of the other 3 tracks on a very good compilation "Images", that's a far bigger problem. I only advise this to people who get into ambient, as others will be reaching for the Stop button of their players by the end of track 3. April 25, 2005

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