Mac Miller Posthumous Album 'Circles' Due Next Week

A posthumous Mac Miller album is due this month.

Circles, the first project since Miller’s death in September 2018, will be released on Jan. 17. His family made the announcement in a heartfelt letter posted to his Instagram account on Wednesday.

“Here we are. The act of having to write this at all feels surreal,” begins the letter. “At the time of his passing, Malcolm was well into the process of recording his companion album to Swimming, entitled Circles. Two different styles complementing each other, completing a circle—Swimming in Circles was the concept.”

Miller had been collaborating with producer and composer Jon Brion, who he previously worked with on Swimming. “He had been working with Jon Brion, who after hearing some early versions of songs, cleared his calendar to help Malcolm fine-tune them. After his passing, Jon dedicated himself to finishing Circles based on his time and conversations with Malcolm. We are eternally grateful to Jon and to those who gave their best to the difficult and emotional task of putting out this body of work.”

After much deliberation, the family ultimately decided to release Circles. “This is a complicated process that has no right answer. No clear path. We simply know that it was important to Malcolm for the world to hear it,” says his family. “One of the most difficult decisions in the process is how best to let people know about it—how to communicate meaningfully while keeping sacred what should be kept sacred. So this will be the only post on any of his channels.”

They ended the note by thanking his fans for their support and directing them to the Instagram page @92tilinfinity for further updates. “Thank you to all the fans who’ve supported him unconditionally through the years. We miss him. We are left to imagine where Malcolm was going and to appreciate where he was. We hope you take the time to listen. The look on his face when everyone was listening said it all.”

Circles marks Miller’s sixth studio album and first since 2018’s Swimming, which was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2019 Grammy Awards.

Miller was discovered unresponsive in his Studio City, Calif. home on Sept. 7, 2018. The Coroner ruled his death as an accidental overdose due to mixed drug toxicity of cocaine, alcohol, and fentanyl. Three men have been arrested and indicted in connection with his death.