...François-Bernard Mâche [proposed] Amorgos, a choppy work in which the tape makes strange noises of water...a well-worked page for which one would not die.
                               G.Masson, Le Républicain lorrain 18 November 1979

Water sounds provided the rhythmic basis for Amorgos by François-Bernard Mâche, which was written for the performing " Ensemble 2 e 2 m de Champigny ".

    Albert Peter Bitz, Saarbrücker Zeitung 20 Novembre 1979

Without claiming to be exhaustive, we should mention Amorgos for twelve instruments and magnetic tape by François-Bernard Mâche (1935) and Chin'anim Cha'ananim by Gilbert Amy (1936), two works that are both faithful to the aesthetics of their authors. The former skilfully contrasts instrumental sonorities with water sounds recorded on the island of Cyclades.

                                 Gérard Condé, Le Monde 20 November 1979

...an interesting if inoffensive programme. Note, however, the very fine score by F.B.Mâche (Amorgos - C.M.)

                                    Alain Féron, (Metz) 23 November 1979

...Meanwhile, the tendencies towards a return to the opulence of a Mahlerian or Wagnerian tone that have been noticeable in recent years do not seem to be solidifying. Pieces such as François-Bernard Mache's "Amorgos" for twelve instruments and tape...prove this by either, like this one, using all the rigour of chamber music to create cool, brilliant series of sounds or, like this one, pursuing paths to sound syntheses predetermined by electronics and thereby achieving the highest perfection in the fine-tuning of conventionally and electro-acoustically produced materials. 

                                                        Trierischer Volksfreund 24 novembre 1979

And above all the charming (as usual) François-Bernard Mâche : Amorgos for tape and 12 instruments - the recorded and artfully edited sounds of splashing water melt into one with the sounds of the instruments : the result is music extremely alluring to the ear, with the most subtle rhythmic relationships and very French.

                                      Tadeusz A. Zieliński, Ruch Muzyczny Varsovie, 10 Novembre 1980

In François-Bernard Mâche's still small discography, this disc is sure to take pride of place. It brings together three recent works of the highest quality which, moreover, perfectly reflect their composer's aesthetic credo - an Attic classicism fertilised by the most contemporary discoveries.
...Amorgos (1979), for 12 instruments and magnetic tape, unfolds in a slow rhythm in which the primordial water tends to take on a rhythmic role rather than, as with many other musicians, a connotation of temporal fluidity...

                                   Jean Gallois, Diapason, January 1983

In the superb booklet that accompanies this recording, François-Bernard Mâche provides the keys to understanding the development of his three works (and in a book to be published by Klincksieck, Musique, mythe, nature ou les Dauphins d'Arion, he shares his thoughts as a composer-writer on Language and Music, Zoomusicology and The Model in Music).
Borrowing part of his compositional material from the elements and nature, Mâche diverts it from its original meaning. The sounds of water in Amorgos, for example, no longer signify fluidity but height, rhythm and colour, while the birdsong in Sopiana tends to melt into the instrumentalists' playing. What emerges from these combinations is a tension heightened by the virtuosity of the instrumentalists... who succeed in surpassing the natural virtuosity of the birds...
To fully appreciate these works, in which timbre is so essential, the sound quality of such a disc would have to be irreproachable, but the timbres are blurred and a perceptible tape murmur 'dirties' the high notes. Nevertheless, these three works exude a dreamy atmosphere that brings us closer to certain ethnic musics.

                                  Alain Lompech, Le Monde de la Musique ?1983

CD Ina-Grm: Manuel de résurrection, Kassandra, Sopiana, Amorgos, Moires

Mâche's music invites us to "look at stones as a kind of poem", as Roger Caillois put it...
The dialogue between nature and culture (which the artist must make explicit and articulate, as Daniel Charles shows in the introductory text) does not, in Mâche's case, descend into anecdote.

                           Costin Cazaban, Le Monde de la musique, July-August 1999