Steve Hackett will be releasing his first new concept album in nearly five decades.

According to Louder Sound, Hackett said, “The Circus And The Nightwhale is an album with a difference. This time it is a story, based both literally and metaphorically on my life… It’s both faction and fiction, beginning in a gritty world of harsh reality, spinning off into a colourful and dark, weird metaphorical universe of wonder turned to terror, with an ultimately beautiful resolve.”

Hackett added, “It spans the musical range from the heaviest to the heavenly, with musical influences, instruments and artists from several countries around the world. I’m hugely proud of this new album which I see as intensely personal, yet totally universal at the same time… If ever there was a film for the ear, this is it!”

The Circus And The Nightwhale Is set to be released on Feb. 16, 2024.