Homeward Bound

Belief and beauty explored with rare grace.

- Nick Dalton

Paul Simon

Seven Psalms

Owl Records 19658779112 (CD, LP) 

Making its entrance with a softly tolling bell followed by some of the most delicate acoustic guitar since the early days of Simon & Garfunkel, this is a gentle, mystical record, a world away from the boisterousness of Paul Simon’s Graceland years.

Given the title, is it a finding of religion late in life – Simon is 83 in October – or something broader? The latter, almost certainly, as Simon takes control of religious-sounding words and phrases, things we think we know and understand, and turns them from conventional thinking into something more ephemeral, more environmentally and spiritually inflected.

Seven Psalms is not so much an album of songs as a 33-minute work, a suite, divided into seven parts – ‘movements’ – all accompanied by little more than beautifully worked guitar, mostly played by Simon, echoing through at various times what might be a distant gong, or the sound of falling water, the tinkling of chimes. In there somewhere are touches of violin, flute, cello, even the murmur of British vocal ensemble VOCES8, but you’d be hardpressed to pin anything down, and it never gets in the way of Simon’s guitar.

It’s all acoustic but in a near-classical fashion rather than easy-going folk music. There’s something almost biblical, too, in both Simon’s delivery, his characteristically frail, soaring vocals sounding as if he’s gazing into the distance from a pulpit, yet there’s also a folk feel, something more medieval than mid-20th century. That also leads to a fantasy edge, a touch of wizardry as Simon weaves his gentle magic. And yet it’s also very much up to date.