Guitarist Cristian Perez takes you on a wide variety of sonic journeys on this strong album that mixes jazz with a multitude of countries. He brings together a core team of Yana Hristova/fl-pic, Emmanuel Trifilio/band, Daniel Brown/b and Joe McCarthy-Bruno Lucini/dr to create sounds that include Peruvian as on “El Condor Pasa” to traditional Japanese Koto during “Longing.” Perez uses a wide swath of guitars to embody various moods, and with Haroon Alam’s tablas takes you to Central Asia on “The Persistant Elephant” before hopping over to Argentina for Astor Piazzola’s “Libertango.” Lynn Veronneau lends her lithe voice to a creative version of “Moon River” and rich and yearning strings create wonderful long shadows for Perez on “”Relentless Dragon In Agony.” A lot of care goes into each piece, and Perez knows when to step out in front and when to encourage from behind.