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Credit: Instagram

One week after Solange Knowles unveiled her most significant body of work to date, A Seat At The Table, the artist has also released a behind-the-scenes documentary exploring the process of creating her excellent third full-length album.

For those who’ve had the pleasure of spending a week with the album, Beginning Spaces is a fascinating and almost voyeuristic look at Solange’s songwriting and collaborative processes, documenting in three parts the evolution of her deeply personal and profoundly moving album. Earlier this week, Knowles also released the visuals for two standout tracks, Cranes in the Sky and Don’t Touch My Hair, both of which were created in collaboration with her husband Alan Ferguson and art director Carlota Guerrero, with whom Solange worked on the stunning visuals for both the videos, the album and its digital and printed book component. 

Per Pitchfork, Solange also released a statement to coincide with the release of the documentary, reading, “A Seat At The Table, Beginning Stages is a look at the early days of jam sessions, experimentation, and the exploring of sounds and ideas for the album.

“While some of the jam sessions featured did not make the album, they helped to create and identify the sonic tone, and the early lyrics and concepts I wrote for the project.

“This video is broken up into 3 different parts. The first and second parts happened in Long Island and New Orleans where I first started to jam and collaborate on ideas with the incredible artists and musicians featured (as well as some other incredible artist and musicians who are not shown here). A lot of these days would just start with me singing a melody or someone playing a synth part or bass line, and would transition into an hour long jam.

“The third part is me taking all of these jams to New Iberia, LA with just my engineers and creating the actual song structures, building the sounds, and writing the lyrics and melodies.

“I later took these songs to Los Angeles to work with Raphael Saadiq to help amplify the production, as well as record the vocals alongside Troy Johnson. When I look back at the beginning stages, I remember the powerful energy that set the tone, and that I’m so grateful followed us everywhere during the creation of this record.”

Watch Beginning Stages below. A Seat At The Table is now available to buy and stream, and could not come more highly recommended. 

Tile and cover image: Instagram