Ex:Re Ex-Re Vinyl

Elena Tonra, guitarist, vocalist and lyricist of Daughter, has announced details of a solo project.

Running parallel to Daughter, she’s assumed the pseudonym Ex:Re (pronounced ex 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. Just finished, it’s being released with equal speed.

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.

Elena said of the album, “There was an urgency. I knew I couldn't live with these songs inside my head for long. If I hadn’t made this record, I think I would still have a lot of false hope. You can’t set a date for when you're going to be over something. But this was my way of processing a terrifying idea, the one I didn’t want to address, saying that this actually is the end.”