CD – packaged in a jewel case with an 8pg saddle stitched booklet, with all artwork by Ambroise Bellec.

Sortilge is the new album from esteemed producer and DJ Preservation and ascendant talent Gabe Nandez. The two artists first linked on Aethiopes, Preservations 2022 collaboration with billy woods, where Nandez was featured alongside Boldy James on one of the albums standout tracks. Sauvage became the catalyst for Sortilge, as the New Orleans-based producer and New York-based rapper gradually began exchanging ideasfirst 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 musicBoot Camp Clik, Scaramanga, Cuban Linxand 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 Sortilge, 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, Sortilge erases the line between urbane and urban. Its a movie in a lucid dream, A Clockwork Ngritude 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 imaginableyet each beat has room to breathe. Amidst this breakbeat symphony, ‘Nandezs 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.

Tracklist:

1. Harmattan
2. Spire
3. Shadowstep
4. Muay Sok
5. Bascinet
6. Morning Star
7. Hierophant (feat. Koncept Jack$on)
8. War (feat. billy woods)
9. Ball & Chain
10. Nom De Guerre (feat. Ze Nkoma Mpaga Ni Ngoko)
11. Respected Calligraphy
12. Mondo Cane (feat. Armand Hammer & Benjamin Booker)
13. Kurtz
14. Lotus Flower