Donda (Pio Pico sessions)

Donda (Pio Pico sessions)Studio album by Kanye West
Listed as Donda "[Rough Draft Cover 5]" on the Unreleased Kanye Tracker. Art by Pierre-Louis Auvray dated June 29th, 2021. Originally created during the God's Country era.
General information
Recorded	March 2021 - July 2021
Studio	Pio Pico Gallery (Los Angeles, CA)
Producer(s)	Digital Nas, Dem Jointz, 88-Keys, Ojivolta, E. Vax, BoogzDaBeast, FNZ, Jason White, Plain Pat, Rico Nichols, Darius Woodley, Todd Rundgren, Jeff Bhasker, Steve Lacy, Dr. Dre, Teddy Walton
Albums chronology
Previous	DONDA: WITH CHILD
Next	Donda (Mercedes-Benz sessions)

Spirits Over The Horizon, or, SOTH, is an unofficial name used by the community to refer to Donda between March and early July 2021, when the project resumed development, being completely changed from its 2020 incarnation.

Alternatively, this era is referred to as "Pio Pico sessions", "Green Tiles era", or rarely, "Gallery Sessions", named after the studio which these sessions took place in.

Background

Ye wearing a mask at Pio Pico

In late May and early June 2021, after radio silence from Ye for months, it was discovered by fans that Ye was holding studio sessions at a "green tile" studio, eventually it was deduced that multiple collaborators were present such as Pusha T, Kid Cudi, Future, Travis Scott, Playboi Carti, and more. It would later be discovered that these studio sessions were taking place at Pio Pico, a private art gallery in Los Angeles, CA, which had been turned into a studio by Ye.

In these studio sessions, work would resume on Donda. The album would take a whole new direction, and the changes are significant enough to not only be distinct from DONDA (2020), but also the listening party versions of the album, as a more experimental sound would be worked on during this time which did not persist by the time the listening parties began.

Many ideas that originated during these sessions would be developed further and eventually find their way onto Donda's released version, such as "Jail", and "New Again".

Etymology

The name came into use in autumn of that year once "trusted sources" claimed the name was an official album title at some point, but by the following summer, some of the community abandoned the name since its legitimacy was never proven by Ye or his team and it seems to have been made up (probably to promote selling leaks).

Track lists

Made around June 2021.

1. "Praise"
2. "New Again"
3. "Jail"
4. "Hype"
5. "Let Go"
6. "Junya"
7. "Life"
8. "Remote Control"
9. "Friends"
10. "I Know God Breathed On This"
11. "Run It Up"
12. "Jesus Lord"

Another track list from June 2021.

1. "How Could You"
2. "Jail"
3. "Come to Life"
4. "South Carolina"
5. "Run It Up"
6. "Off The Grid"
7. "Ultra Light Beams" (likely a cover of the TLOP song, "Ultralight Beam")
8. "Heaven and Hell"
9. "Let Go"
10. "Eternal Life"

Track list from July 3, 2021.

1. "Let Go"
2. "Come to Life"
3. "Life Of The Party"
4. "Daylight"
5. "Remote Control"
6. "Junya watanabe"
7. "South Carolina"
8. "Off the Grid"
9. "God breathe on this"
10. "New Again"
11. "Run it up"
12. "Jail"