Solange Knowles is once again creating in another dimension, this time in the realm of instrumental music. Five years after her fourth studio album, When I Get Home, the artist and Saint Heron founder is obsessed with a new medium: the tuba.
In an interview with Harper's Bazaar for the publication's "Legacy Issue,” Knowles reveals her interest in the tuba after writer and editor Kaitlyn Greenidge asks about the sounds she's currently interested in.
Solange has experimented creatively and musically throughout her career, using a variety of styles and types of instrumentation in her work. The singer teases that fans could now be getting some releases of tuba music from the Houston-born creative.
“I love it. I’ve started writing music for the tuba, and I am trying to talk myself into releasing it, but I can only imagine the eye rolls from people being like, this bitch hasn’t made an album," she said.
Solange continued to explain what it is about the tuba that draws her to the instrument.
“It sounds like what the gut feels like to me,” she added. “There’s a way that it takes up space that you can’t deny, and it also just feels very Black to me.”
The Houston-born creative could be joining the ranks of André 3000 and Lil Jon, fellow southern musicians who recently released instrumental albums in their middle age. Last November, 3000 released his first album in nearly 20 years, New Blue Sun, where he exclusively plays the flute. And after serving as musical director for the 2024 Super Bowl halftime show, Lil Jon released a 10-song instrumental album, Total Meditation, to assist listeners in concentration, mindfulness, and overall health.
Despite her joke about disgruntled listeners, fans are no doubt jumping for joy at the prospect of any future releases from Solange—tuba or otherwise. An instrumental album from Knowles would come as no surprise, as she's been a composer and curator for years. In 2022, Knowles composed an original score for the New York City Ballet Orchestra, and last year, she curated the performance series Eldorado Ballroom for the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
