Sleep and songwriting make one of the great creative partnerships

IN A STATEMENT published online in February 2018, Paul Simon (pictured) announced that he would no longer go on tour. He still loved making music, he wrote, but “the travel and time away from my wife and family takes a toll that detracts from the joy of playing.” Some fans interpreted the missive as an indication that they had heard the last of him.

Not so: the hitmaker’s new album, “Seven Psalms”, is released this week. Over several nights in January 2019, Mr Simon awoke in the small hours of the morning and wrote down the music and lyrics which had come to him in dreams. Mr Simon did not seem surprised by this mysterious creativity. “I’m trying all the time to move things in this kind of flow way that puts you in a dream,” he said last month. “I think if you’re willing to fall into a dream space, you’re willing to let your judgment down.”