Waiting for Cousteau (French title: En attendant Cousteau) was released in 1990 on Disques Dreyfus, licensed to Polydor. The album was dedicated to Jacques-Yves Cousteau and was released on his 80th birthday June 11, 1990. The title of the album is a reference to Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot.

The title track is a composition in the ambient style and an edited version of the music he produced for Concert d'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 record and cassette tape the title track was edited to only 20 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.

The last track En Attandant Cousteau was composed as the score to a documentary on the life of oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau.