SORTILÈGE by PRESERVATION & GABE 'NANDEZ

Vinyl is 12” black 150g packaged in standard 12" jacket with a 2-panel insert, with all artwork by Ambroise Bellec. 

EXPECTED RELEASE DATE OCT 10, 2025

Sortilège is the new album from esteemed producer and DJ Preservation and ascendant talent Gabe 'Nandez. The two artists first linked on Aethiopes, Preservation’s 2022 collaboration with billy woods, where Nandez was featured alongside Boldy James on one of the album’s standout tracks. “Sauvage” became the catalyst for Sortilège, as the New Orleans-based producer and New York-based rapper gradually began exchanging ideas—first long distance, then in February 2024, when Nandez flew to New Orleans for two weeks, ready to work.

“It was smooth, very synergetic,” 'Nandez explains. “We listened to mad music—Boot Camp Clik, Scaramanga, Cuban Linx—and I was asking questions about all types of shit, trying to soak up game and history, which I did.”

The two also bonded over their shared francophone ancestry: Preservation is half French and 'Nandez is half Malian. These connections made their way into the music as well, via both aesthetics and sample sources, and that sort of exchange courses through Sortilège, bridging the generational, geographical, and cultural gaps between the two artists with a record that feels a world unto itself. Esoteric, yet blunt and uncomplicated as a fistfight, Sortilège erases the line between urbane and urban. It’s a movie in a lucid dream, A Clockwork Négritude projected against the wall of a construction site. Mixed-use residential.

Tracing this arc, fellow travelers Armand Hammer, Koncept Jack$on, Ze Nkoma Mpaga Ni Ngoko, Benjamin Booker, and billy woods all make appearances. Oh, and there are drums everywhere: drums that will rattle a hooptie and drums that whisper threats. Somehow, over the course of 14 tracks, Preservation seems to find his way to every instrument imaginable—yet each beat has room to breathe. Amidst this breakbeat symphony, 'Nandez’s unmistakable baritone glides purposefully, ever forward, a bristling warship in troubled waters. Every time the bass thumps, 'Nandez counterpunches. This is a record for heavyweight speakers and clunky headphones.

Sortilège can be translated as either:

1, Magical / Supernatural
   Act of witchcraft, magical spell, charm, or curse.

2, Figurative / Literary
    Symbolic enchantment, inexplicable fascination, often caused by a person, work of art, or an atmosphere.

We like to think it names the force at work within and between these songs.

Tracklisting

Side A

Harmattan

Spire

Shadowstep

Muay Sok

Bascinet

Morning Star

Hierophant (feat. Koncept Jack$on)

Side B

War (feat. billy woods)

Ball & Chain

Nom De Guerre (feat. Ze Nkoma Mpaga Ni Ngoko)

Respected Calligraphy

Mondo Cane (feat. Armand Hammer & Benjamin Booker)

Kurtz

Lotus Flower

All Vocals by Gabe Nadez, except where noted
All Production by Preservation
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Willie Green
Assistant Engineers: Mose Wheeler & Kayla Cariaga
Artwork by Ambroise Bellec. Layout by Ashes57