Producer Tony Visconti confirms he heard five demos for what would have been the follow up to 'Blackstar'

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David Bowie was planning to record and release another album after 'Blackstar', producer Tony Visconti has revealed.

'Blackstar' was released two days before Bowie's death and has been dubbed his 'farewell album', with mentions of death and heaven throughout its lyrics. However, Visconti says that in the final weeks of his life Bowie had begin demoing five new songs and that the pair were in discussions about starting a new record.

"At that late stage, he was planning the follow-up to 'Blackstar', and I was thrilled,” Visconti told Rolling Stone. “And I thought, and he thought, that he’d have a few months, at least. Obviously, if he’s excited about doing his next album, he must’ve thought he had a few more months. So the end must’ve been very rapid. I’m not privy to it. I don’t know exactly, but he must’ve taken ill very quickly after that phone call.”

It was during the recording process for 'Blackstar' that Visconti realised what his long-term collaborator was doing with the album. “You canny bastard," he said. "You’re writing a farewell album.”

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It was previously suggested in a separate report that there is material leftover from the 'Blackstar' sessions which could see a future release.

Visconti also spoke about the time Bowie told him he had cancer, at the start of 2015. “He just came fresh from a chemo session, and he had no eyebrows, and he had no hair on his head, and there was no way he could keep it a secret from the band,” Visconti says. “But he told me privately, and I really got choked up when we sat face to face talking about it.” Although the chemo initially seemed successful and Bowie went into remission in the middle of 2015, the cancer suddenly returned in November, and he knew that it was terminal."

David Bowie has been cremated in New York according to reports. It is believed he was privately cremated without any friends and family present, as per his wishes. He wanted "to go without any fuss", a source told two UK newspapers.

He passed away on Sunday (January 10) following an 18 month battle with cancer. Reports have since suggested that he "died from liver cancer" after "surviving six heart attacks".

See more tributes to David Bowie here.