Sound has the power to soothe or scar the mind; in combination with light and moving images the effect can verge on the indescribable. Joby Talbot's The Same Dog employs all those elements to telling effect in this adaptation of a ghostly story by Robert Aickman, a psychological thriller about a boy, a girl, a haunted house and a yellow dog.

Talbot, also arranger for witty lounge lizard pop group The Divine Comedy, has written a score that is abrasive, percussive and mesmeric; the chorus, dramatically effective, wails like the wind or cries out in horror, giving voice to that image of a scream by Munch. All the time, shafts of needle-sharp coloured light probe the auditorium and projected fretted patterns play on the walls, keeping the senses alert.

For all the complexity of Talbot's score, he never crowds the libretto; an adroit adaptation by the comedy writer Jeremy Dyson that preserves the narrative and sustains all the dreadful imagery. In the statuesque Welsh contralto Hilary Summers the work has a gifted interpreter, whether in the solo sections, of which there are few, or in the recitatives that were delivered with a welcome clarity and dramatic force.

Talbot does not let a musical opportunity slip by; the narrative is given a keener edge by the mournful echoes of a solo saxophone, played with customary flair by John Harle.

David Temple controlled his National Sinfonia and the other diverse elements with skill, layering the tension until the final instant of catharis, relief in a single word. Well done to the CEFC for commissioning such an adventurous work, which it will hopefully repeat before too long.

There was also a welcome return for David Fanshawe's African Sanctus, performed last by the choir five years ago. The setting of the Latin Mass (sung by adult and children's choirs against traditional African music recorded in situ by the composer) works remarkably well, expressing the conviction tht music is, after all, a universal language.

It is a hugely entertaining and aurally very pleasing work that Temple's musicians and singers delivered with real gusto.