Friday 13 November 2015. This unusually mild autumn evening almost has something festive about it. People have high expectations for the night ahead. Two women in love are looking forward with relish to meeting up; female twins are wondering where to celebrate their birthday; a nurse has promised herself a well-deserved break; a husband is annoyed at having to look after his daughter while his wife goes out to a gig.

Right across Paris, people are getting ready for an evening in high spirits, of conversation, celebratory drinks and dancing. And there is nothing to alert the emergency services or the police about the imminent horror.

A polyphonic chant and narrative elegy, Terraces conveys the voices of those who experienced joy then terror, reconstructing their actions, the looks exchanged, and the shared turmoil, while at the same time resurrecting an almost forgotten sense of how things could have been, had tragedy not struck.