Ex has released Save As, Elena Tonra’s second solo album and her first under the name in eight years, as a five-date UK in-store run begins in London.
The nine-track album is out through 4AD. Tonra started it in 2023 after taking song sketches into the studio with Fabian Prynn, who produced her 2018 Ex debut. She had not planned to make another record under the name, but the sessions developed into a full album.
Prynn produced Save As and also performs on it. Josephine Stephenson plays cello, Hinako Omori contributes synthesisers, Ben Reed plays bass and Jethro Fox adds electric guitar.
Several finished tracks retain details from their first recordings. Tonra made the original “Sleep” demo alone in a Paris hotel room. Its acoustic-guitar figure was passed through a vocoder and drum machine, with much of that demo surviving in the album version.
“Am I Even Real?” changed during a studio improvisation with Prynn. Tonra said it began as a very slow, sad song before they tried speeding up the chorus and kept the result.
The sequence begins with “Radio Station” and closes with “Healing (Slow)”. Tonra has described the opening title as a metaphor for a mind moving between feelings and becoming stuck when a decision is required. The song combines her memories with fragments of conversations she overheard.
Ex will mark the release at Rough Trade East on 30 October. The sold-out in-store run continues at Resident in Brighton on 31 October, Jumbo Records in Leeds on 4 November, Liverpool’s Jacaranda Basement on 5 November and Truck Store in Oxford on 6 November.
