Yesterday, we told you that David Gilmour had teased that "a very important message" would be revealed today – this has now happened, and should delight David's fans with the nature of the announcement.

First, full details are revealed of Rattle That Lock, David's new solo album, and studio follow-up to 2006's On An Island. The album will be released worldwide on Friday, September 18th 2015 and comes in a choice of four physical configurations, as well as digital downloads, depending on your choice of format and content. It will be available as a CD in a hard cover bound book package, a vinyl LP in a gatefold sleeve, a deluxe CD & DVD box set, and as a deluxe CD & Blu-ray box set. Full details of the contents of each is below, along with ordering details and links.

The cover of the album has also been revealed. A very atmospheric picture, not what was tweeted by Polly Samson yesterday (which is for the single, the title track of the album and due for release tomorrow – Friday, July 17th), it was photographed by Rupert Truman of StormStudios, and art directed by Dave Stansbie from The Creative Corporation under the Creative Directorship of Aubrey "Po" Powell from Hipgnosis, who has been associated with Pink Floyd throughout most of the band's career.

The single will be available to download and stream worldwide on Friday, following the exclusive first airing on BBC Radio 2's Breakfast Show in the UK.

However, the news is not just of the album packages and the single release, but four concerts in North America for 2016 have also been revealed, along with the ticketing details – these go on sale imminently through Ticketmaster.com TOMORROW (Friday, July 17th), and are as follows:

Hot news is afoot from David Gilmour - this afternoon, a fifteen second "teaser" video was released in various places, with a snatch of Rattle That Lock, the title track of David's forthcoming album - previously noted as "expected in September".

The teaser is below, but David's official Facebook page (and Pink Floyd's page too) both note that tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon, at 5pm UK time, a "very important message" will be posted.

We will bring you full details of what that message is, once we know.

Also today, Polly Samson revealed that the track would be given its first play on BBC Radio 2's Breakfast Show on Friday (which as we posted about on Monday, includes David Gilmour in conversation with stand-in host, Sara Cox), and revealed an image which may or may not be the new album cover...

In the meantime, have a listen to this:

Following our recent story on the Pink Floyd university course at Ramapo College, Gilad Cohen's academic study of the song Dogs has been published, offering a further glimpse into the type of material the course will cover. The article can be found at the journal Music Theory Online, Volume 21, Number 2, published June 2015 by the Society for Music Theory. Cohen discusses an upcoming book possibility and Pink Floyd conferences.

Brain Damage: In your PhD work, what place does the Dogs article hold; is it part of your PhD thesis?

Gilad Cohen: Yes, the Dogs article is part of the PhD dissertation that I wrote at Princeton, which investigates the ways Pink Floyd's large-scale songs succeed in maintaining vitality and interest while being based on very little material. This is something that is unique to Floyd: almost all other British bands from the 1970s used much more thematic material (melodies, chord progressions, grooves) when creating pieces of such scale.

BD: Have you analyzed a number of Pink Floyd songs in this depth?

GC: While I briefly referred to numerous songs from the repertoire as part of my research, I only analyzed two songs in such level of detail: Echoes and Shine On You Crazy Diamond. My analysis of the latter concentrates on its wide emotional range, and its central points were presented at the lecture/concert I gave at the Pink Floyd conference at Princeton last year. A video of this lecture/concert is available in its entirety here: Gilad Cohen: Shine On You Crazy Diamond - lecture and arrangement (complete).

BD: What can the average fan learn from the article?

Some advance notice for you - BBC Radio 2's Chris Evans Breakfast Show on this coming Friday (July 17th), which airs between 6:30am-9:30am UK time, "gets that Friday feeling going" with a range of guests joining Sara Cox (who is looking after Chris's show this week) in the radio studio for a chat, including our very own David Gilmour.

There is no indication as yet, what time during the show that David will be appearing. Most guests appear after 7:30am or so, although if David is an early bird he could appear earlier in the show!

BBC Radio 2 can be heard on DAB and FM radio, via Freeview, Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable, and via www.BBC.co.uk/radio2, which will allow listeners around the world to tune in. The BBC's iPlayer service (on their website, and on Virgin Media) will allow listening on demand for seven days from the date of broadcast, principally for those in the UK, but this does also work in many other countries.

Update: Polly Samson has confirmed, via her Twitter account, that the title track from the album, Rattle That Lock, will receive its first play at 8:50am on this Radio 2 show. So, well worth tuning in if you are able to...