Tom Avgenicos ft. Delay 45 – I’ll Go Where You Go
Released 25 September 2026, via CD and digital
Tom Avgenicos - trumpet & electronics
Roshan Kumarage - piano & synths
Dave Quinn - bass & synths
Ashley Stoneham - drums & guitar
Delay 45 return with I'll Go Where You Go, a powerful new album that celebrates more than a decade of shared musical history, and marks their return to the quartet format, embracing immediacy, openness, and the unique chemistry forged since the musicians first met as high school students.
Led by Sydney based trumpeter Tom Avgenicos, alongside Roshan Kumarage (piano, synthesizers), Dave Quinn (bass, synthesizers), and Ashley Stoneham (drums, guitar), the quartet distils years of collaboration into a recording defined by deep trust, fearless interplay, and emotional honesty.
Recorded over two days at Sydney's Rancom Street Studios, the album captures a band at its most instinctive. Rather than relying on complex compositional frameworks, many of the pieces are built from simple musical concepts that become catalysts for spontaneous interaction. The title track unfolds through shifting stylistic landscapes before settling into a soulful groove that continually resists expectation, while Ever-Present transforms a single instruction—"build fast"—into a thrilling study of momentum and release. Elsewhere, Amped explores electronic textures and angular improvisation, Iron Chef playfully subverts traditional ensemble roles, and the closing ballad Bye For Now offers a heartfelt tribute to mentors Chris O'Dea and Judy Bailey.
For Avgenicos, the project reflects both artistic growth and lifelong friendship. "We've been doing some bigger projects over the past few years (Ghosts Between Streams), so the opportunity to play and record these pieces as just a quartet was really refreshing," he says. "Whilst the record sounds emotionally dense, I think our approach to the music is really carefree, fresh and confident, which is a nice reflection of our shared musical history." That sense of ease has become one of Delay 45's defining characteristics. "We've commented to each other that when we play together now, we often feel a kind of out-of-body experience—as though we're audience members witnessing our own performance." That intuitive connection is evident throughout the album, where electronics, looping forms, lyrical improvisation and dynamic contrasts are woven into music that feels both meticulously crafted and completely alive.
Since officially forming in 2018, Delay 45 have established themselves as one of Australia's most distinctive contemporary jazz ensembles, performing at the Sydney Opera House, Phoenix Central Park, Melbourne Recital Centre and the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Hailed as "a bold new chapter in Australian jazz" (Sydney Morning Herald), "once in a generation" (Limelight), and praised by Best of Jazz for music that "remains, at its core, distinctly unexpected," the quartet continue to redefine the possibilities of contemporary improvised music. With I'll Go Where You Go, Delay 45 present their most personal and confident statement to date—an album where friendship, imagination and years of shared experience converge into a singular musical voice.
We've been doing some bigger projects over the past few years (Ghosts Between Streams) so the opportunity to play and record these pieces as just a quartet was really refreshing. Whilst the record sounds emotionally dense I think our approach to the music is really carefree, fresh and confident which is a nice reflection of our shared musical history.
Tom Avgenicos
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Recorded 12-13 Dec 2024 at Rancom Street Studios
Engineered and mixed by Richard Belkner
Mastered by Michael Lynch
Album artwork by Suzanna Vangelov
Photos by Baro Lee
Design by Zoe Dixon