Jazz in the Gardens: Trish Clowes: ‘Try Me’ album launch ft. MY IRIS + Louise McMonagle

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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. 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.”