London-A previously unreleased David Bowie album is set to go on sale more than four decades after it was recorded.

The record, an experimental soul and funk album titled The Gouster will appear later this year (16) in a box set compilation of his works from 1974 to 1976 called Who Can I Be Now?

The Gouster was recorded at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia in December 1974 and saw the Starman musician develop a new musical style influenced by American soul and funk that would feature prominently on his 1975 album Young Americans.

News of the new release was announced on Bowie's official Facebook page, with sleeve notes written by his longtime producer Tony Visconti were also published.

“Gouster was a word unfamiliar to me but David knew it as a type of dress code worn by African American teens in the ‘60’s, in Chicago," the notes read. "But in the context of the album its meaning was attitude, an attitude of pride and hipness. Of all the songs we cut we were enamored of the ones we chose for the album that portrayed this attitude.

"David had a long infatuation with soul as did I. We were fans of the TV show Soul Train. We weren’t ‘young, gifted and black’ but we sure as hell wanted to make a killer soul album, which was quite insane."

Many of the songs on the unreleased record also appeared on the album Young Americans, an album that cemented the rocker's status as a master of re-invention.

While Visconti was mixing The Gouster album, Bowie phoned his producer to tell him he had written a song with John Lennon, Fame - which subsequently appeared on Young Americans alongside a cover of The Beatles' 1969 song Across The Universe.