Elena Tonra is of two minds about almost everything. She created Ex:Re in 2018 to examine the overthinking that gnaws at her constantly, along with traveling she used as to escape her own mind. There was never any thought of a second collection of songs, even though 2021 brought a revelatory reworking of her initial record with 12 Ensemble, adding strings to her doubts and dreams. Save As has been gestating since 2023, when Tonra brought sketches of songs she was working on to drummer and producer Fabian Prynn.
Over the next couple of years what emerged was a portrait of a woman shifting back and forth between confidence and control, mixed with bouts of emotional turmoil and self-conscious stupor. The push-pull is immediately on display in ‘Radio Station’. From the “Mm-hm” opening to the drum and acoustic rush of guitar, Tonra’s tale of a trip through California reveals she is never quite sure who she is. “Shuttin’ out meanderin’ conversations/ Just tunin’ into the fragments/ I am a changin’ radio station/ I’m suddenly another, I’m suddenly another.” The changing mindset seems to infect her every thought.
Dancing against trip hop rhythms and the anesthetized tape loops from her initial demo recordings run through both a vocoder and a drum machine, ‘Sleep’ looks in at a fragmented relationship. As she attempts to draw a picture of her lover it dawns on her that everything she thought she had is gone. “Still, I couldn’t get the likeness/ The portrait stared there, lifeless/ And that’s how I knew/ I’d lost it for you.” While everything falls apart the song ends with a small note of hope, “I guess there’s nothing left/ I fall apart in taxis/ I free myself on dance floors.” Disintegration dancing.
Woozy, slow-motion synths from Hinako Omori blend with Prynn’s building drums on ‘Frozen Aisle’ as Tonra unleashes the declaration, “I’ll make a fool of myself in the middle of the frozen aisle.” Eventually she admits, “I’m looking for ice cream.” Yet, she’s looking for so much more, ice cream is just the subtext.
Tonra’s songs are never simple. Ostensibly singing about spaceships on ‘Am I Even Real’, she questions whether she is being true to herself in a relationship. The title track, all rumbling bass and more trip hop drums, places her vocals way out front as she imagines letting someone back into her life again. “I thought that all the stars had burned through / But then there’s you.” While ‘Healing (Slow)’ allows emotional extremes to move to the fore – love, Frustration and bewilderment all exist as she reflects the grief of her mother’s death. Elena Tonra uses Ex:Re as a vehicle for examining the emotional landscape in which she resides. More than anything else, what is on display throughout Save As is human intimacy in all its contradictory feelings and emotions. Bravely, she puts her soul on display.