Hot off the release of her critically-acclaimed album, Solange Knowles unleashes an accompanying documentary, A Seat at the Table, Beginning Stages.

Throughout the 11-minute clip, the soulful songstress explores “early days of jam sessions, experimentation, and the exploring of sounds and ideas” for her latest material, surrounded by creatives like Sampha, Kwes, Kindness, Sean Nicholas Savage, and Chairlift’s Patrick Wimberly.

Solange’s son, Julez, also stars in the film, often popping up with youthful joy. He can be seen dancing, smiling, and taking pictures in various candid scenes.

In a statement via Pitchfork, Solange explained why some of the music in the doc isn’t on the final version of Seat. “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,” she writes.

Watching the full film, one also experiences the different phases of Table. “This video is broken up into 3 different parts,” Solange explains. “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,” she continues, “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.”

Eventually, Solange took these tracks to L.A. to collaborate with Raphael Saadiq and Troy Johnson. “When I look back at the beginning stages,” she adds, “I remember the powerful energy that set the tone, and that I’m so grateful followed us everywhere during the creation of this record.”