Salt Cathedral

Salt Cathedral consists of the indie duo Juliana Ronderos and Nicolas Losada, a pair of Colombian artists residing in Brooklyn, New York. Their sound merges tropical electropop with influences drawn from Latin, jazz, folk, and dancehall traditions. Multiple EPs plus a 2017 dub collaboration involving Lee "Scratch" Perry paved the way for the first full-length release, Carisma, which appeared in 2020. Four years afterward, the duo issued Before It's Gone, a 2024 album that traverses genres in a semi-conceptual examination of existence amid contemporary conditions.

Juliana Ronderos and Nicolas Losada shared a childhood neighborhood in Bogotá, Colombia, yet their paths first crossed during jazz composition coursework at Boston's Berklee College of Music. After a stint with the Los Angeles math rock outfit Il Albanico, the pair relocated to Brooklyn and launched Salt Cathedral in 2011, selecting a name that honors their origins through reference to a celebrated Colombian salt mine church. Originally configured as a quintet, the group delivered its self-titled debut EP in 2013, spotlighting the streaming success "Move Along." By the arrival of the 2014 Oom Velt EP, the lineup had narrowed to Ronderos and Losada alone, allowing electronic and Latin elements to surface more clearly.

The year 2016 proved active, beginning with the February single "No Ordinary Man," continuing through the March release of the Homage EP, and extending to the October track "Unraveling" that featured Matisyahu. Ronderos and Losada wove additional reggae and dancehall textures into the 2017 singles "Fragments," "Always There When I Need You," and "Run for the Money" which included Assassin. Those recordings appeared on the Big Waves/Small Waves project of the same year, which also drew contributions from Lee "Scratch" Perry together with Assassin and Matisyahu. Over the following two years, singles such as "Rude Boy" and "Caviar" previewed the forthcoming album. Ultra Records released Carisma in May 2020.

Extended reflection guided the creation of a follow-up, as the duo considered routes through life and possibilities for hope inside an increasingly unsettled modern landscape. That outlook informed the next release, a loosely conceptual album threading multiple styles with subjects that encompass climate change, social media, trust, and friendship. Before It's Gone reached listeners in 2024.