Hey hey – we're the monks!: Music For Paradise

It's the least predictable music success of the year. This week a classical album featuring the chanting of Cistercian monks was outselling Madonna and Amy Winehouse in the pop charts. Having already topped the UK classics chart, Chant – Music For Paradise, by the Cistercian monks of the Stift Heiligenkreuz monastery in Austria, has now reached No 7 in the pop charts and its popularity is still gathering momentum. It has sold 55,000 copies in under two weeks. It is the oldest recorded music, originating from as far back as the 900s, and certainly the first known form of chill-out music.

Noticing an increase in demand for Gregorian chanting in their existing back catalogue, in February Universal Records cashed in and launched a search for the best singers of the genre to make a new record, posting their advert across the Catholic press. More than 100 entries were received from around the world, and the last to arrive in the Universal email inbox on the final day of applications – amusingly headed "schnell, schnell!", or "quick, quick" – was a YouTube link from Father Karl of the Stift Heiligenkreuz monks.

From the Vienna woods, eight miles north-west of Baden in Lower Austria, the community of monks who recorded the album live in the world's oldest continuously active and inhabited Cistercian monastery, which was founded in 1133. They practise Gregorian chanting, a form of prayer and meditation of the Bible sung in Latin, as part of their peaceful existence.

Tom Lewis, A&R manager of classics and jazz at Universal who signed up the monks for the release, said of the hunt for the perfect chant: "We were inundated. I didn't realise how many people use the music in their everyday lives. Some people study it as part of religious life. We've had applications from people putting dance beats over it; from Canada, we had school choirs. We chose the chants from monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz because they were the best we'd heard – they were absolutely stunning."

So why has it become so popular? "We put it down to the resurfacing every so often of the sound of Gregorian chanting," Lewis says. "It's a unique sound that everyone recognises. Every time it emerges, it strikes a chord – people respond to it."

And while it is unusual for classical stars to cross into the mainstream, it's not unheard of either. Pavarotti famously did so with "Nessun Dorma", from Puccini's Turandot. Played during the 1990 football World Cup, it propelled the opera star into the pop charts. Gennaro Castaldo, spokesman for HMV, says of the monks' album: "It's unusual to have such a release, in particular a classical release get into the Top 10, but it's the ultimate chill-out music. Given how stressful life is these days, people want music to chill out to."

It is not the first time that a niche genre of music has made it into the mainstream. Often, it is the power of cinema and television advertising that gets new fans and younger audiences interested in musical realms that were previously unfamiliar to them. In 2001, the Save The Last Dance soundtrack attracted new fans to hip hop; while the Coen brothers' O Brother Where Art Thou sparked a renewed love of bluegrass and country and made Alison Krauss a household name. Likewise, the Heinz advert, which used a Ladysmith Black Mambazo song, sparked a demand for African music.

Now, a new media is following this trend. Halo, Xbox's best-selling game, featured Gregorian chanting in the first instalment of the trilogy in 2001. So popular was the last game, Halo 3, that it made more than £84m in sales in its first 24 hours when it was released last September, setting the record for the most money earned in a day by an entertainment product. The ever-increasing popularity of the trilogy means that the sampling of chanting in the games has reached a new – and younger – audience.

"Computer games are using music in soundtracks more and more. It introduces new fans to a broader range of music. Up to now, it has been cinema popularising classical music and introducing it to a younger generation," says Castaldo.

This is not the first time that Gregorian chanting has emerged in recorded music. "It comes along, then people forget about it and rediscover the power of it," says Castaldo. In 1994, the group Enigma used Gregorian chanting in their track "Sadeness" from their No 1 million-selling album MCMXC A.D. On the back of its success, an album, Canto Gregoriano, by the Benedictine Monks of Silos, reached No 7 in the charts, and went on to sell 5 million copies worldwide.

Undoubtably, it is Halo that first triggered the interest in this year's resurgence of the music, but Lewis also puts it down to the current economic climate and the need for people to relax. "Last time Gregorian chant was popular, economic conditions weren't good either. This is the oldest form of chill-out music that has been written and recorded. It's ancient. There's something very raw and primal about this music. It strikes straight into your heart," Lewis says.

Peter Martin, a painter and decorator from south London, became a fan of Gregorian chant after a friend recommended he bought the Cistercian monks' album. "I had gone through a difficult patch. My wife had left me and I was feeling very sorry for myself. I'm not into religious music but a friend told me about it. It did so much to help me and I thought it could do for other people.

"I had a feeling of peace that I haven't had in a while. I felt such a sense of relaxation, I felt that I was in another place completely. It was as if someone had lifted me up and transported me to another plane. It makes you think about the power of music. I still sit down when I get home in the evening and put it on if I'm by myself. It's the perfect antidote.

"When I saw the record advertised it didn't appeal to me, but if you hear it you can get drawn into it. The sound is something that anyone can relate to whether or not they're into religious music. They have to know the effect it would have on them. It's almost like hypnotherapy."

'Chant – Music For Paradise' is out now on Universal

And relax: a guide to soothing music

*Kruder and Dorfmeister – The K&D Sessions
The ultimate comedown album from the Austrian duo who made downtempo dub remixes of rock, pop, drum-and-bass and hip-hop tracks, including Depeche Mode's "Useless" and Roni Size's "Heroes".

*Late Night Tales
This series picks a different DJ or band to compile each of its mix albums. Fila Brazillia Groove Armada, The Flaming Lips, Four Tet, Belle & Sebastian and Air have stamped their various styles on the series.

*Orbital
Pioneers of electro dance and techno music in the 1990s, Phil and Paul Hartnoll's In Sides is one of the best ambient electro albums.

*DJ Shadow – 'Endtroducing'
DJ Shadow fuses breaks, soul, funk, ambient and free jazz in his legendary album that was listed in Guinness World Records as the first music album to comprise entirely of samples.

*Air
The French duo's debut, Moon Safari, with its hit "You Make It Easy", and their Virgin Suicides soundtrack, are their best chillout albums.

*Classic Chillout
There are countless "classic chillout" albums, including Ministry of Sound and Café del Mar versions. William Orbit was the first DJ to harness the power of classical music, applying a beat to Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings in 1999. Other typical tracks are Kinobe's "Slip into Something More Comfortable" and Moby's "Porcelain".