Eight years after releasing her self-titled debut, Elena Tonra has returned to her solo project Ex:Re with a second album, Save As, released October 30, 2026, through 4AD. The nine-track record brings Tonra back into a musical space she once thought she had explored only once, building on the intimate songwriting and alternative pop elements that defined her first release while introducing new textures and approaches to her music
Tonra, best known as the lead singer of London indie band Daughter, originally approached Ex:Re as a standalone creative project. Her 2018 debut was a deeply personal collection that allowed her to explore songwriting outside of the band. A second album was never part of the original plan. That changed in 2023, when she brought a collection of song sketches to producer Fabian Prynn, who also worked on the first Ex:Re record. Their creative connection led to a new collection of songs and eventually became Save As.
The album finds Tonra exploring memory, overthinking, relationships and the difficulty of navigating her own thoughts. Rather than following a single storyline, the nine songs move through different emotional experiences. They preserve small details and passing moments through music. It’s a compelling return for an artist whose songwriting has always made room for the complicated parts of being human.
A Second Chapter That Wasn’t Part of the Plan
The creation of Save As began with unfinished ideas that Tonra had been carrying for several years. Bringing those sketches into the studio with Prynn gave the material an opportunity to develop beyond its original form. The producer’s familiarity with Tonra’s creative process helped establish continuity between the two albums while leaving room for experimentation.
Prynn returned as producer, with several additional musicians contributing to the record. Josephine Stephenson plays cello, Hinako Omori contributes synthesizers, Ben Reed handles bass and Jethro Fox plays electric guitar. Their contributions give the album a broader instrumental palette while keeping Tonra’s voice and songwriting at its center.
The record’s title also connects to its creative process. Save As suggests the act of preserving something while creating another version, an idea that fits an album assembled from old sketches, recordings and newly developed arrangements. Some songs retain elements of their earliest recordings, while others took shape through collaboration in the studio.
That combination gives the album a sense of movement. Tonra is revisiting material from different points in time, allowing earlier ideas to exist alongside the person and musician she is now.
Small Details, Different Directions
The songs offer a closer look at how those ideas translate into sound. “Radio Station,” the album opener and first single, begins with strummed acoustic guitar before expanding into a fuller arrangement of guitars, synthesizers and percussion. Tonra has described the changing radio station as a reflection of her mind, with different feelings pulling her in competing directions until she struggles to make a decision. The song’s shifting musical landscape gives that description a clear place in the record’s opening moments.
“Sleep” takes a different route. Tonra originally recorded the song alone in a hotel room in Paris, and the finished version keeps a piece of that early recording. Its acoustic guitar part was processed through a vocoder and paired with a drum machine, creating a softened, slightly distant quality. The track is a particularly clear example of the album’s interest in preserving the first stages of an idea instead of polishing away every trace of where it began.
“Am I Even Real?” brings Prynn into the performance as a duet partner. The song developed through an improvisation session in the studio. Tonra has explained that it began as a much slower, sadder song before the pair tried playing the chorus at a faster pace. Its lyrics use images of spaceships as Tonra considers whether she is being honest with herself in a relationship. The finished track captures the unexpected turns that can happen when a song is allowed to change during recording.
The three songs released ahead of the album also introduced different sides of the project. “Radio Station” arrived first, followed by “Sleep” and “Am I Even Real?” Each received a video, with the latter two presented as live studio sessions filmed with Tonra and her collaborators. Those performances offered a glimpse of the group dynamic behind the recordings before the full tracklist became available.
Ex:Re Finds Another Way Forward
Released digitally, on CD and vinyl, Save As is accompanied by UK in-store performances in London, Brighton, Leeds, Liverpool and Oxford. Eight years after her debut, Tonra has given Ex:Re another chapter, keeping the project connected to its beginnings while allowing the songs to reflect the ideas and experiences that have accumulated since. The result keeps Tonra’s songwriting firmly at the center.
