My Iris is an intense and thrilling band that represents the front rank of the contemporary UK jazz scene. Lauded for her imaginative approach to improv and adroit writing, saxophonist Trish Clowes provides her bandmates Ross Stanley (piano/Hammond organ), Chris Montague (guitar) and Joel Barford (drums) with a unique platform for individual expression and group interplay, delivering driving grooves and lingering melodic lines, seamlessly morphing between earthy restlessness and futuristic dreamscapes.
Clowes released her fourth album with My Iris, ‘A View with a Room’, on US trumpeter Dave Douglas’s Greenleaf Music in April 2022, receiving wide critical acclaim. The album features ‘The Ness’, a track inspired by footage captured along a Scottish coastline by filmmaker Rose Hendry. Clowes first worked with Hendry in 2019 when she created a music video for ‘Abbott & Costello’, a track from an earlier album ‘Ninety Degrees Gravity’ (Basho Records, 2019), inspired by characters in Denis Villeneuve’s science fiction film ‘Arrival’. ‘Abbott & Costello’ went on to be screened at the Cannes Lions Festival and shortlisted for The Voice Of A Woman Awards 2019.
My Iris has toured internationally and made broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and Radio Bremen. Notable recent performances include Wigmore Hall (where Clowes is an Associate Artist), Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Rochester International Jazz Festival (Made In The UK showcase), Toronto International Jazz Festival, Galway Jazz Festival, and the Barbican (London Jazz Festival). In May 2023, MY IRIS were joined by Dave Douglas for a special gig at the 606 Club in London, playing a mixture of Douglas and Clowes’s compositions.
“a rich mix of cinematic landscape evocation, funky guitar grooves, dreamy reveries spun off minimalist patterns and fluently uncliched improv”
Album of the Month & 4 STARS for ‘A View with a Room’ from John Fordham, The Guardian
“brilliant”
Gilles Peterson, BBC Radio 6 Music
“A high intensity, mercurial workout”
Downbeat Magazine on ‘Ninety Degrees Gravity’
“A View with a Room confirms Clowes as one of the most interesting voices on the effervescent British scene”
All About Jazz Italia
“a beguilingly inventive mix of shadow and luminosity… lyrical warmth tempered by certain shady spookiness”
4 STARS for ‘A View with a Room’ from Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman
Abbott & Costello
performed by MY IRIS, directed by Rose Hendry
“an incredible band”
Jamie Cullum, BBC Radio 2
“A triumph for Clowes and for My Iris”
Live review of MY IRIS at Wigmore Hall, from Andy Robson, Jazzwise
“dizzying heights of lyricism and emotional expression… The level of musicianship and shared intent, leads to a telepathic like interplay within the quartet… Trish Clowes has thus delivered an exceptional album”
Gareth Allen on ‘A View with a Room’, At The Barrier
“The jazz of the future… The time in the townhouse flies by, so moved one is listening to this quartet”
Augsburger Allgemeine, MY IRIS live in Germany
“a band’s band … high speed melodic chases, punchy avant garde jams, spacey organic textures and even Weather-Report-inspired rock fusion”
New York State Music
MY IRIS recordings
‘A View with a Room’ makes several ‘albums of the year 2022’ lists, including…
Jazzwise (UK) – no. 9 in ‘The 20 Best Jazz Albums of 2022’
The Nation (US) – mentioned in ‘The Best Albums of 2022’ in the ‘also worth listening to’ section
ABC Jazz (Australia) – listed in ‘Top 2022 Feature Albums’
A View with a Room is out now on Greenleaf Music
MY IRIS Live! is available on Bandcamp (digital download only) – all proceeds go direct to the band
Ninety Degrees Gravity and My Iris are released on Basho Records
