Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has revealed that the rest of the band have begun recording new material without him.

Martin said the decision for him to sit out of a two week recording session had been made by their producer, Brian Eno.

In a letter to the band, Martin said Eno wrote: "'Viva La Vida...' (Coldplay's 2008 album) was good. But I know that you can do better.”

Coldplay originally revealed that they were going back into the studio in a message on the micro-blogging website Twitter last weekend.

Martin played a brief acoustic set on Absolute Radio today (January 30th) as part of a short radio tour.

(by Jason Gregory)