Sentient

Sentient is composed of 11 dazzling tracks - three of them previously unreleased - compiled by the virtuoso guitarist, remastered and sequenced in a way that allows a new and dramatic story to emerge. As is often the case when the spark of musical magic strikes, Santana was surprised, delighted and receptive. "I'm always driven by passion, emotion and inner instinct," he says. "When I first heard these tracks floating around in the house, I said, 'Why don't we put these all in one place?'"

The songs that make up Sentient are complex compositionally, but they float by like a dream. There are brilliant collaborations with Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, Miles Davis, Paolo Rustichelli, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels and Cindy Blackman Santana, but no matter the mood or genre - whether it's lush pop or high-intensity cosmic jazz - it's all part of a common thread. As Santana says, "From Stravinsky to James Brown, it's all the same song, meaning it's all connected to the umbilical cord of humanity and planet Earth."