Relativity of sounds and noises
F-B. Mâche, who was seeing for the first time a concert entirely devoted to his works, gave Nuit (1966, for magnetic tape), Kemit (1970), a darbouka solo from Nubia, transcribed by the composer ("against a paralysing respect for traditional music, and against its preservation in an aspetised showcase, I wanted to wager that in some cases, like this one, they had enough vitality to withstand transplantation into a foreign social setting - the concert - and enough universality that their interest did not lie entirely in their original function. "In addition to these works, there are two others: Korwar and Temes Nevinbür, a kind of "theme and variations" consisting of a magnetic tape on which raw sounds are recorded and which each time receives different instrumental "veneers": harpsichord (Korwar), two pianos and two percussion instruments (Temes Nevinbür), orchestra (Rambaramb) and which can even be heard on its own (Agiba). With their extraordinary variety, the very fine sound results each time vividly demonstrate the relativity of sound, noise and music, and the non-existence of the boundary that is supposed to separate them.
                     Gilbert-Jean Faccarello Nouvelles Littéraires 1 May 1973

FRANÇOIS-BERNARD MÂCHE
The Perspective du XX° siècle series, organised by Radio-France, got off to a good start. A very fine concert closed the day devoted to the young university composer (he is a Greek teacher at the Lycée Henri-IV), François-Bernard Mache.
Unfortunately, it was not well received by the audience, who were not even attracted by the first part of the programme, devoted to four madrigals by Monteverdi. Never, however, with the exception of Mozart, has the Italian language been so well served.
A literary man, François-Bernard Mache is very sensitive to the music that emerges from spoken language, independently of the meaning of the words and often in opposition to it. He uses an African language that nobody understands for its own sake, and claims that he always starts from reality, from "raw sound". Although he contributed to the early days of musique concrète as part of the Groupe de recherches musicales de l'O.R.T.F., Mache has now forged his own original musical style, achieving a rich synthesis of natural sounds and classical instruments.
Such was the case with the triptych performed the other evening. These are three works in which the electro-acoustic element remains the same. In Mache, nature provides the theme through electronics: for example, the song of the blackbird, which suddenly reveals its musical structures. Against this natural backdrop, the instruments - the harpsichord in Korwar, two pianos and two percussion instruments in Temes Nevinbür, and a full orchestra in Rambaramb - thread their way through the interstices of the recorded sounds, as if by capillary action.
                                
                                      Jacques Doucelin, Le Figaro 23 February 1976

In Rambaramb, François-Bernard Mache attempted a symbiosis between instrumental music and the raw sounds of nature (as in Korwar and Temes Nevinbür). The accompaniment, the imitation of a native voice, then of birds, monkeys and other wild animals (recorded on magnetic tape) at first seems artificial on analysis, and the inevitable rhythmic rigidity of the music seems a little poor to compete with animal freedom. But when listened to as a whole, the symbiosis quickly becomes fascinating, with the instruments embroidering rather than imitating, and when the 'natural' music falls silent, the orchestra, with its light plucking of the strings, little cries from the brass and the piano's reverberations, has truly joined the sounds of nature in poetry and subtlety.
					Jacques Longchampt, Le Monde 21-22.11.1976

At rehearsal time, the discovery of François-Bernard Mâche's score made the musicians, who were more familiar with fugue and counterpoint, first laugh and then cringe, but this did not prevent them from confidently following Jean-Claude Casadesus' mastery of his subject and, in the end, giving another exemplary concert. The orchestra worked hard and succeeded in what was no more and no less than its debut in the repertoire.
                     
                          Bernard Lecomte, Nord Matin 20 November 1976

François-Bernard Mâche presented his "Rambaramb" for tape and orchestra. The score reads: 86 performers and a manipulator... The twenty-six violins were in tune for a concert of familiar noises: from quacking to grunting and chirping... The title 'Rambaramb' comes from the over-modelled skull figures of the New Hebrides peoples. The work was commissioned by O.R.T.F. in 1971 from this young man from Auvergne, who also has a degree in classics. The aim was to abolish the opposition between nature and culture, through a tangle of human voices, animal cries and natural sounds. Interestingly, the work seems to have been created more for radio than for public performance. Catherine Godon-Juhel was persuasive at the piano.
                                       
                            Marie-Agnès Thellier, Nord Éclair 22 November 1976