By Ted AYALA

After a year – much too long – spent sitting out the music scene, new music collective Synchromy returns on Friday, regrouped and re-energized for a concert they have dubbed as their “RE:launch.”

Friday night’s concert is also the start of a long-term relationship with the sextet Brightwork newmusic, a group that includes the cream of the region’s instrumentalists including violinist Teresa Stanislav, clarinettist Brian Walsh, and Grammy nominated pianist Aaron Kallay. Joining the proceedings is renowned pianist Mark Robson, whose provocative and thoughtful programs, not to mention his expressive and nuanced touch, have won him a potent following. Robson will also be contributing a composition of his own to the program.

Soprano Ann Noriel, mezzo-soprano Kristina Driskill, and baritone Scott Graf round out the proceedings.

Built around the music of core Synchromy members Jason Barabba, John Frantzen and Vera Ivanova, the program will also include works by Pomona College professor Tom Flaherty, Shaun Naidoo’s Ararat, as well as music by local new music fixtures Nick Norton and Ben Phelps.

In the crowded and burgeoning local new music scene, Synchromy has etched a firm profile that stands apart from its peers. The fact that its composers speak in disparate idioms – one only has to compare the whimsical irreverence of Barabba’s music to the muscular post-Schnittkean intensity of Ivanova’s music for starters – allows them to be themselves without needing to hew to a rigid ideology. The results are an atmosphere at once engaging and casual, attracting connoisseur and new comer alike.

Synchromy’s “RE:Launch” will be taking place Friday, Sept. 12 at Occidental College’s Bird Studio beginning at 8 p.m. Free parking is available in the structure one-half block up the hill from Bird Road on Campus Road. Tickets are $20 and can be obtained by going online to http://synchromyrelaunch.brownpapertickets.com/ or by paying at the door. For more information, visit online at http://www.synchromymusic.org/.

  Ted Ayala