Hotel San Claudio
brings together composer/musician
Mark de Clive-Lowe
, producer/drummer
Shigeto
, and singer/flutist
Melanie Charles
, three artists bridging genres such as jazz, hip-hop, and dance music. The album feels loose, free, and spontaneous, with the artists putting a new spin on familiar material and letting other ideas flow naturally. A year earlier,
de Clive-Lowe
released
Freedom: Celebrating the Music of Pharoah Sanders
, and the spiritual jazz pioneer remains a powerful guiding force.
is bookended by interpretations of "The Creator Has a Master Plan," the first of which slowly snakes its way in, establishing a welcoming atmosphere and enticing the listener, but cutting off right when it seems like they're going to take a full plunge. Instead, once they've fully captured the audience's attention, they switch things up and show everyone just how much fun they have creating music in the studio together. "Strings" sets the tone with
's atmospheric synths and
's woodblock-heavy,
J Dilla
-inspired drumming, then
Charles
takes the mike for an exuberant rap verse, sounding like she's even surprising herself at how easy and enjoyable it is, and delivering shout-outs to her collaborators. The vast, reverb-heavy "MFT" centers around a gamelan-inspired melody, which later resurfaces in one of the album's interludes. "Bushido" is a rework of a composition previously featured on both of
's
Heritage
albums from 2019, which took inspiration from Japanese folk tales, paying homage to the artist's ancestry. This version seems both ancient and futuristic, with flute melodies evoking sacred traditions while trippy electronics shoot everything into space. "Kanazawa" is a smooth disco-soul jam highlighted by
' radiant, soaring vocals, and it leads into an even more cheerful, uplifting rendition of
Sanders
' "Love Is Everywhere." The concluding take on "The Creator Has a Master Plan" starts out gently, then gradually gets swept up in ethereal, cosmic joy. ~ Paul Simpson