Manuel de conversation (a Phrase book ) is dedicated to the virtuoso clarinetist Armand Angster, with whom 1 had many opportunities to collaborate since 1988 when he created a version of Aulodie for piccolo clarinet. It is a commission from the C.I.R.M., a national music center established in Nice, where it was premiered by Angster on November 4th 2007. Two versions are available : « real time » using the Max MSP software, or with a CD of prerecorded sarnples, the acoustic result being nearly the same. 
The piece develops a long series of dialogues, first with whispered synthetic consonants, then with different spoken sentences belonging to dying or already extinct languages such as Mixe (from Mexico), Tuchone (from Canada), Arapesh and Autu (from Papua-New Guinea), all chosen for their remarkable phonetic characters. Then it is with sounds and musics coming from all the continents that the dialogues multiply their virtuosity. " I was traveling in Burkina Faso and Andaman islands at the time of this composition, and some sounds from Africa or Asia have left a few marks in some parts of the work.", says Mâche. Eventually, the dialogues run into a long immersion in natural models like rain sounds. Thus, the general movement of the piece shifts from a reference to archetypes, like playing, echoing or dialoguing, to contemplating the voices of nature, beyond all human speech. 

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