Michel Saugy - Oceanique (1991)

Sub-aquatic electronic mellowness from Swiss-born Saugy, on the French New-Age label Ellebore. First up is the 16-minute gentle drift of Asteria, and it's a very good piece for its era.  This was a couple of years after Jean-Michel Jarre came out with the extended ambience of En Attendent Cousteau''s title track - possibly an inspiration here?

The following three tracks, each 4-5 minutes in length and livened up by drum tracks, don't really feel like they belong here.  I've listened to them once or twice, and they were pleasant enough, but are essentially forgettable 90s library music rather than New Age or ambient.

Not to worry though - the half-hour long Navicula is still to come.  Even more of a becalmed oceanic drift than Asteria, this track more than makes up for the shortcomings of the middle section of the album.  In fact, if you just take the opening and closing tracks together, you've still got a pretty decent 46 minutes of early 90s electronic chillout to enjoy as an album.

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