Producer Brian Eno is working with Coldplay on their next album. He produced the band's last album, 2008's Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends.

This famous producer gained notoriety in the 1980s with U2. He made a surprising move while producing Coldplay's last album. He ordered Chris Martin to go home for two weeks. He wanted the other musicians to have time to develop their own ideas.

Eno told BBC 6 Music that he is repeating that successful formula. He asked the frontman to work separately from the others.

"It's not rocket science, and it’s not Svengali-ism either," he explained. "It's not some attempt to subvert the band, but just to see what other possibilities are lurking within them that might not come out within their normal working situations."

During the interview, Eno also said the group was working on new sounds.

He said, "It's quite different from anything they've done before I think, so far anyway. I don't know how it will end up being, but it's very fresh."

Eno went on to say, "I think that if you have a group of four people, that's lots of possible combinations" the producer claimed. "You can have any one of them on their own, and you can have lots of couples within that four. A and B, A and C, A and D. I think every one of those is a unique musical entity that will produce something unique."

The producer says work is progressing so quickly that the new album could be in stores by Christmas.