SALT CATHEDRAL - BEFORE IT’S GONE - INDEPENDENT

NY-based, Colombian duo Salt Cathedral announce their new album, Before It's Gone, out March 22, 2024 on Independent / The Orchard.

Many of us, often without realizing it, curate ourselves for the world. As strangers on screens and social media trends dictate our lives, prodding at the subconscious first thing in the morning, the passing of time becomes inherently complex. When, exactly, did we become the person we are today? And how the hell did we get here? For Colombian-born duo Salt Cathedral, this semi-existential crisis fed into their latest record Before It’s Gone; an instrumentally-organic, lyrically-driven exploration of days slipping through our fingers, and how our lack of attention affects how we see the years ahead.

“You think about the future, but it happens all the time” is the first line declared by vocalist Juli Ronderos. It’s a curtain pull, bright-light-to-the-eyes jolt that urges us to snap into the now, the present, and the future that is unfolding as we float on. This everyday anxiety is nothing new, but it’s the gravity in which Salt Cathedral delivers their message, as Ronderos’ isolated vocals swell, that morphs it into a tunnel vision investigation. What is the future? And will the future always exist? “Modern technology affects how we see the future,” she explains. “If you have too much input, you will not have output.” Before It’s Gone fights against the complacency in remaining static.

The album is not cynical. It’s about the beauty in remaining optimistic despite our apocalyptic apprehensions. Ronderos, and bandmate Nico Losada, are both immigrants and often have to remain hopeful to sift through the struggles of cementing a life in America. Imagination, positivity and joy have always embedded themselves in the music of Salt Cathedral, and despite the sharp inhale of Before It’s Gone’s themes, there remains a loosening and a stretching towards something more promising. As best friends for the past 10 years, the album fuses together the unwavering trust Ronderos and Losada have in each other, and in the sounds they could only create as a team.

Armed with samples collected and recorded throughout the years, and only the instruments in their confined Brooklyn studio, Salt Cathedral wanted to depart the dazzling island tones of their 2020 LP CARISMA and instead turn to the searching soundscapes that would document the exact time and place they found themselves in. As they recorded during the height of the pandemic, they desired a natural, minimal foundation; something that would return them to an organic feeling in a chaotic reality.

The playful, poignant tones of stand-out, 50-second track “I Can Trust” acts as a centerpiece mantra: that when we learn to trust, especially ourselves, there is beauty to be found. This mantra-like offering seeps into the sonic world of single “Terminal Woes,” with polyrhythmic percussion pushing an urgent protest call against corporate greed, the climate crisis and the world of the future child. It’s sense of movement, and energetic pop blossoming secures a catharsis among the rubble. The open expanse of “cellphone” points to screen addiction after Losada read a story about a person buying a house as an NFT. It was the first time the band used an acoustic guitar on an album, and its sparse arrangement embodies the loneliness that comes with trying to connect in the real world. Juxtaposing this solitary woe is “Off The Walls”: a bouncing, beautiful ode to their unwavering friendship. It’s a song that solidifies the optimism of the album; that if we strive to connect, and create, and stay in the moment with people we care most about, the future doesn’t seem so scary.

Before It’s Gone is a push-and-pull between the person we curate, the person we strive to be and the person we are all along. Through their exploratory genre-blending expertise, and their senses-stirring lyrical output, Salt Cathedral have created an album that centers both the mundanity and the magic of being alive. It’s a reminder that we can immerse ourselves in our anxieties but it’s more important to do something about them, otherwise “it”––the natural world, the person we are, the connections we deem most important––could dissipate before we even realize they’re gone.

Before It's Gone will be released March 22, 2024 via Independent / The Orchard.