When I am captured by someone singing, I get this feeling that words are working a whole lot better. They feel different somehow, more meaningful. They reach down deeper. Even though most songs use words that are commonly spoken they tend to leave terra firma and spread wings when sung. Once you've heard Astral Weeks, Cypress Avenue becomes somewhere to be, not just a place that exists.

The sound we can conjure with the air we breathe and our vocal cords is a glorious mystery. My introduction to music was hearing church choirs. As far as I could make out, the singing breaks were the good bits. Occasionally, in exotic places such as Killarney, there would be a hymn sung in Latin, and that’s when the penny dropped. The mystery of why songs are so appealing deepens when we are moved by those sung in a language alien to us. The emotion in the sound is the source of the power. It crosses all boundaries; the words are just tools.

Which brings me to Missa Luba, a setting of the Latin Mass sung in styles traditional to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Franciscan friar Fr Guido Haazen conceived and arranged the idea.

Congolese music in general is an uplifting affair. There’s great joy in it and it’s a life source for the people, just like water. Haazen set about capturing the force in an entirely new way. The results are immaculate.

It was recorded in 1958 by Les Troubadours de Roi Baudouin, a choir of 15 adults and 45 children from the town of Kamina. The unusual ingredients in the mix are the percussive arrangements, subtly woven throughout. They add a touch of mystery, but it’s the spectacular range of the voices that mesmerises. It’s all-encompassing. It leaves no room for argument. Heavenly is the word.