We are Catalina, Hermes and Gabriel: PA'LANTE, the core of Frente Salsero, the Latino collective from Cologne. We play salsa, cumbia, champeta and merengue on vinyl and share our knowledge in workshops, talks and panels.
Real vinyl for dance floors and parties. Solo, as a duo or as a trio.
Your own party, your own space. And: why we dance in dark times.
PA'LANTE (“forward”) are Catalina Valencia, Hermes Villena and Gabriel Riquelme, the core of Frente Salsero, the postmigrant Latino collective from Cologne, founded in late 2022. The name Frente Salsero pays homage to Latin American resistance movements: el pueblo, the people.
In the collective since 2024. Colombian, music educator, 18 years in cultural management, festival curation and tour management, trained singer and pedagogue. With us: DJ, workshops, dance pedagogy.
DJ, record collector and promoter since the 90s, raised in a Chilean exile family in Germany. Formerly a dance teacher, he founded the club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld (CBE) in Cologne at 31. Historian, cultural manager, poet.
DJ, record collector, curator and artistic director, born in Bolivia and raised between Brazil, Bolivia and Germany. Long-time programmer of the Cologne jazz and bar club King Georg, curator of the Tom-Tom Discotec at Jaki in Cologne, member of the advisory board of Jazz Week Cologne. He builds musical bridges between jazz, soul, tropical sounds and salsa.
DJ set, workshop or talk: tell us what you have in mind. We send our fees on request.
palantecologne@gmail.comInstagram @frentesalsero · gabrielriquelme.de