Frente Cumbiero is indeed at the front of the continued expansion of Nueva Cumbia’s sonic profile across Latin America and beyond. The project springs from the fertile brain of Bogota-born songwriter and producer, Mario Galeano Toro, founder of the influential tropicalista projects, Los Pirañas and Ondatrópica, and indefatigable researcher, collector and expert on Columbia tropical music and its variegated roots and branches.
Frente Cumbiero’s experimental cumbia pulls up classic samples from Galeano’s vast collection of rare vinyl as inspiration for further analogue synth and drum machine dialogue, with euphonium, saxophone and percussion pushing the envelope further. To date, their own recorded output is minimal, with one LP collaboration with Mad Professor and some influential underground singles, but they’ve been busy touring across Latin America, Africa, Europe, the US, Russia, Australia and New Zealand, taking new cumbia worldwide.
Mario Galeano - director, synthesizers, drum machine
Pedro Ojeda - timbal
Juan Sebastián Rozo - euphonium
Marco Fajardo - saxophone, clarinet