Following Machinations (2000) and Avis de tempête (2004), Georges Aperghis returns to IRCAM with a new work, Dans le mur, an exclusively instrumental piece for piano and sound tape, where theatricality, an understanding of situations, and the physical commitment of the performer are nonetheless central to the work. A dozen electronic tableaux that could be seen as clusters of fragments from great piano literature of the 19th century succeed one another. Each tableaux is a kind of wall that the soloists tries to affect, reacting with movements that both attack and deny the surface while trying to follow the bowing of the surface. This work endeavors to evoke the movements of an urban graffiti artist via the pianist’s playing.