Saxophonist and composer Trish Clowes launches her new album ‘Try Me’, releasing on UK indie label Stoney Lane Records, featuring her band MY IRIS, with Chris Montague (guitar), Ross Stanley (piano/Hammond organ), and Joel Barford (drums). Cellist Louise McMonagle also appears as a special guest.
With an international reputation for intricate writing and adventurous improvisation, Clowes provides her bandmates with an abundance of space for exploration, spontaneity, and kinetic provocation. ‘Try Me’ features a new set of music written by Clowes that began with a walk along the Thames Pathway on a cold January morning in 2025. Everything that can be heard on this new recording started with sounds captured in field recordings Clowes made on her journey from Rotherhithe to Blackfriars Bridge. The compositions take ideas from footsteps, bird calls, the distant sounds of buskers, cathedral bells, and the visceral moods of the water’s edge, including a track dedicated to the enigmatic St Saviour’s Dock.
Clowes is currently an Associate Artist at Wigmore Hall (London) and she has released numerous critically acclaimed albums on Stoney Lane Records, Greenleaf Music (US), and Basho Records (UK). Having been previously commissioned to write for ensembles such as the BBC Concert Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta, Clowes appeared as a guest soloist with the NDR Big Band (Germany) in November 2024, performing a new set of her own music entitled ‘Radiant Resistance’. MY IRIS have toured internationally and made broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and Radio Bremen. In May 2024 the band were joined by US trumpeter-composer Dave Douglas (who is also the artistic director of Greenleaf Music) for a series of dates in the UK and Ireland. Other notable performances for the band include Wigmore Hall, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Karlsruhe Jazz Festival, LOFT Cologne, Bray Jazz Festival, Rochester International Jazz Festival (US, Made In The UK showcase), Toronto International Jazz Festival, Galway Jazz Festival, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, and the Barbican (London Jazz Festival).
Special guest cellist Louise McMonagle (Riot Ensemble) will perform duo with Clowes to open the concert, dipping into the material from their own recent album release, ‘Colour Fields’. BBC Radio 3 broadcaster and writer Fiona Talkington described their music as a “warm, playful, exquisite partnership which has the perfection of Bach and the physicality of dance.” McMonagle released her debut solo album ‘Ancient Modernity’ on Delphian Records in 2025, which has been described as “an inspiration” by Gramophone, and “formidable” by BBC Music Magazine.
“Trish Clowes is one of the brightest stars to have emerged during the so-called British jazz boom of the past decade or more… she is a musician of great sensitivity and strength.” Philip Watson, The Irish Times
“an incredible band” Jamie Cullum, BBC Radio 2
“brilliant” Gilles Peterson, BBC Radio 6 Music
