While we’re patiently waiting for that new Gorillaz album to finally happen (their first since 2011’s The Fall), frontman Damon Albarn is hard at work on a new musical based around the classic Lewis Carroll tale, Alice in Wonderland. 

The show, titled Wonder.land, is a modern adaptation that follows a 12-year-old girl named Aly who creates an online alter-ego named Alice and loses herself in a virtual world.

Albarn is in charge of all of the music for the musical, which will premiere at the Manchester International Festival in July.

“I’m fascinated by the idea of going down a rabbit hole, the otherworldliness and what that might mean,” Albarn told BBC. “Alice aside, The Queen of Hearts, The Duchess, White Rabbit, Caterpillar were the most threatening characters of my childhood. I was genuinely very frightened of them as a kid.”

He goes on to explain,

“Alice offers a great challenge. Carroll’s stories and [John] Tenniel’s drawings are hardwired into our subconscious; characters curious and bold, treading a line between dream and reality. Finding a way to reinvent these icons for the digital age has been a fascinating journey.”

It will be the 150th anniversary of Carroll’s classic tale.