Itamar Erez is no stranger to exploring new musical territory. Trained in classical guitar, he’s roamed from Turkish music to Spanish Flamenco, from jazz to Afro-Brazilian sounds. But when Erez moved his young family from Tel Aviv to Vancouver, it felt like starting from scratch all over again. A requinto, a Mexican cousin of the guitar, had been sitting in his music room for years, as if the two needed to get to know each other. As Erez began to create a musical community again in his new home, he found inspiration to stretch his sound yet again. Picking up that requinto, Erez delighted in the playful feel of its higher register. The joyful optimism of that moment rings out in “Requinto,” the scintillating opening track of his new solo album, Mi Alegria, a celebration of all of Erez’s musical homes past and present (Release: June 20, 2019).