Portishead are set to begin work on their fourth record, the band's Geoff Barrow has said.

The collective took no les than 11 years to release their third album, 'Third,' which came out in 2008. But Barrow says the band are set to begin work on album number four as soon as possible

In an interview with the Quietus, Barrow said the album may end up as "a multi-layered synthesizer record," and that he did not expect the new record to take as long to release.

"No, it's just that I gave up music for five years, so the album ['Third'] only took about four years in total. But I guess when you're trying to reinvent the wheel... I don't think we did it – don't get me wrong, I don't rate myself that highly -- but when you come up with something that you are finally happy with, it's OK.

"We didn't want to repeat ourselves but it was really difficult sometimes. If you want to do something different, you really can't because it doesn't sound like you; so when you don't sound like what you like about yourself, you end up writing stuff that you hate. It was like eating a curry and puking it up and eating it again."

Barrow, did say, however, the band had not yet begun work on any new music.

The Portishead multi-instrumentalist has been busy of late with his new band Beak>, who released their debut album this month.