Ex-Re -Save As
Indie / Dream Pop / Indie Folk / Trip-Hop – London, UK – October 30, 2026 – 4AD
There are certain voices that have an extraordinary ability to express emotions that most of us struggle to put into words, and Elena Tonra undoubtedly possesses one of them. Best known as the singer, guitarist and principal songwriter of British indie band Daughter, she has spent more than a decade creating deeply intimate music, exploring the complexities of human relationships, loneliness, memory and emotional vulnerability. With Save As, released on October 30, 2026, through 4AD, Tonra returns to her solo project Ex after an eight-year absence, delivering a second album that feels both familiar and unexpectedly different.
Originally introduced in 2018, Ex, pronounced ex-ray, emerged from a particularly painful romantic separation. Its self-titled debut was an intensely personal collection of songs, built around delicate guitars, understated string arrangements and lyrics that often felt like private conversations never intended to be overheard.
While Daughter continued their own musical evolution with albums such as If You Leave (2013), Not to Disappear (2016) and Stereo Mind Game (2023), Ex remained a separate creative space, allowing Tonra to explore her most personal thoughts without the expectations associated with her main band.
Interestingly, a second Ex album was never part of the original plan. It was only in 2023, when Tonra began revisiting unfinished compositions with musician and producer Fabian Prynn, that the possibility of a new record gradually emerged.
The result is Save As, a nine-track album lasting approximately thirty-four minutes, which retains the emotional intimacy of its predecessor while introducing a much broader musical palette.
Produced by Prynn, the record also features contributions from Josephine Stephenson on cello, Hinako Omori on synthesizers, Ben Reed on bass and Jethro Fox on electric guitar. Their involvement brings additional depth to Tonra's compositions, incorporating elements of atmospheric folk, experimental pop and trip-hop alongside the familiar acoustic guitars and delicate vocal arrangements.
The title itself is particularly meaningful. Borrowed from the familiar computer command, Save As reflects the way we attempt to preserve memories, experiences and fragments of our lives before they disappear or become distorted by time.
Unlike the first Ex album, which largely followed the emotional aftermath of a relationship, these new songs explore a wider collection of personal experiences, from indecision and self-doubt to grief, travelling and the strange ways in which our minds revisit the past.
Opening track “Radio Station,” released as the first single in September, introduces these ideas beautifully. Inspired by a long drive through the American West, the song uses the image of a radio constantly changing frequencies to represent a mind overwhelmed by competing thoughts.
Built around repetitive acoustic guitar, subtle cello arrangements and restrained percussion, it captures the intimate character of Tonra's songwriting while introducing a slightly more expansive musical atmosphere.
“Sleep” takes the album into considerably different territory. Originally recorded in a Paris hotel room, the composition was subsequently developed with Prynn into a hypnotic arrangement of processed acoustic guitars, electronic rhythms and atmospheric synthesizers.
Its trip-hop influences are particularly noticeable, with a prominent bassline and gently insistent percussion giving the song an unexpected rhythmic momentum. Tonra's vocals move between almost spoken passages and more melodic expressions, creating a fascinating contrast between emotional vulnerability and electronic experimentation.
With “Am I Even Real?”, the album turns towards questions of identity and the influence that relationships can have on our perception of ourselves. Originally conceived as a slower composition, the song developed a more energetic character when Tonra and Prynn decided to accelerate its chorus, introducing a rhythmic tension that reflects the uncertainty of the lyrics.
“Two Chords” demonstrates how effectively Ex can create atmosphere from the simplest musical ideas. As its title suggests, the composition is built around a minimal harmonic structure, allowing subtle rhythmic variations, layered vocals and electronic textures to provide much of its movement.
The result recalls the understated intensity of trip-hop, particularly the more introspective side of Portishead, while retaining Tonra's unmistakable melodic sensitivity.
The title track, “Save As,” returns to the album's central fascination with memory and the desire to preserve experiences that might otherwise fade. Throughout the record, Tonra approaches songwriting almost as a form of emotional documentation, capturing moments and sensations that remain important even when their original circumstances have changed.
One of the most affecting compositions is “Frozen Aisle,” which transforms an ordinary supermarket setting into a moment of profound emotional vulnerability. Through the image of standing among frozen food displays, Tonra explores anxiety, isolation and the strange experience of feeling overwhelmed by emotions in the most mundane surroundings.
The accompanying string arrangements add considerable depth without overwhelming the intimacy of her performance, allowing the song's emotional weight to emerge naturally.
Following “Wasp,” the atmospheric “Language of Love” introduces a more cinematic quality, with delicate instrumental textures creating a sense of suspension. There are moments here that recall Daughter's more contemplative recordings, although the freedom of the Ex project allows the arrangements to move in slightly less predictable directions.
Finally, “Healing (Slow)” brings the album to a particularly moving conclusion. Inspired in part by the death of Tonra's grandmother, the song explores grief, absence and the gradual transformation of memories as time passes.
Its restrained arrangement allows the emotional significance of the composition to emerge through subtle vocal details and carefully placed silences, providing a fitting ending to an album so deeply concerned with remembering and letting go.
What makes Save As especially compelling is the way its musical evolution mirrors its emotional themes. The first Ex album was largely defined by heartbreak and isolation, while this second release feels more open, allowing different experiences and perspectives to coexist within the same musical space.
The introduction of electronic rhythms, processed guitars and subtle trip-hop influences gives the songs a new dimension without compromising the intimacy that has always made Tonra's writing so affecting.
Fabian Prynn's production is particularly important in achieving this balance. The arrangements are often detailed and carefully constructed, yet they retain the fragile quality of the original compositions, allowing Tonra's voice and lyrics to remain at the centre of the music.
There are occasional echoes of Portishead, Radiohead and the more atmospheric traditions of British indie folk, but Save As ultimately belongs to Elena Tonra's own musical universe, where the smallest personal observation can become something unexpectedly universal.
With Save As, Ex delivers a beautifully intimate second album that explores memory, identity and loss through a captivating combination of delicate folk melodies, dreamlike arrangements and understated electronic experimentation.
Eight years after her solo debut, Elena Tonra returns with a record that feels more expansive and emotionally nuanced, finding moments of warmth and possibility within songs that remain deeply melancholic.
It is an album about the things we carry with us, the memories we struggle to preserve and the people whose presence continues to shape our lives long after they are gone. And perhaps that is what makes Save As so affecting: its understanding that remembering can be both painful and comforting, and that music sometimes offers the only place where those contradictory feelings can exist together.
© Thusblog
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