Ex:Re – Ex:Re //4AD// (Released 1st February)

Description

£16.99 – LP

Elena Tonra, guitarist, vocalist and lyricist of indie/shoegazer band Daughter, has announced details of a solo project. Running parallel to Daughter, she’s assumed the pseudonym Ex:Re (pronounced x-ray) for her eponymously-titled debut solo album, a deeply personal record that was made with both a sense of urgency and a cathartic need.

Tonra’s candid solo songs document the time after a relationship ended and are written like unsent letters to herself and others. Taking on a creative moniker, she chose Ex:Re to mean ‘regarding ex’ and also ‘X-Ray’ as a way to look inside and see what is really there. Writing took a year but the recording process lasted mere months, turning to Fabian Prynn (4AD’s in-house engineer and producer) and composer Josephine Stephenson on cello to help bring Ex:Re to life.

Tonra said of the album, “Although the record is written for someone, a lot of the time it’s about the space without that person in it. In every scenario, there’s either the person in memory or the noticeable absence of that person in the present moment. I suppose it is a break-up record, however I do not talk about the relationship at all, and he hardly features in the scenes. He is only felt as a ghostly presence”.

The first single to be taken from Ex:Re is ‘Romance’. An ambient song for the dancefloor, its accompanying video (directed by Antonia Luxem) is appropriately set in a club, following Tonra lost in motion.

Tracklisting:

A1. Where The Time Went

A2. Crushing

A3. New York

A4. Romance

A5. The Dazzler

B1. Too Sad

B2. Liar

B3. I Can’t Keep You

B4. 5AM

B5. My Heart