James Tritten is very good at making connections.
Spend just a few minutes talking with Tritten, who runs Wilmington-based indie music label Fort Lowell Records, and those connections start sparking, the synapses buzzing fast and furious.
On Nov. 5, Fort Lowell released "Luz De Vida II," a compilation album benefiting Homicide Survivors, Inc., that features not only such nationally known acts as Calexico, Amos Lee, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Dr. Dog, but also acts with Wilmington connections, like the hip-hop artist L'Orange and the singer/songwriter Tracy Shedd, who is Tritten's wife.
Tritten and Shedd — her song on "Luz De Vida II" is the poppy, moody "Chasing Time" — moved to Wilmington a couple of years ago via Tuscon, Arizona, where they started Fort Lowell in 2009.
That's where the first "Luz De Vida" — featuring such acts as Spoon, Jimmy Eat World, the Meat Puppets, Neko Case and Robyn Hitchcock — came out in 2011 in response to the shooting there of then-Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others. That effort raised more than $20,000 for the victims and their families via the Tucson Together Fun.
Here's where the Wilmington connection comes in. Nearly a decade after it came out, "Luz De Vida" inspired Tritten to compile and release, in October of 2020, "GROW: A Compilation in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter," featuring current and former Wilmington acts, after he and Shedd witnessed first-hand the George Floyd/BLM protests downtown. Proceeds from the sale of that record benefited the New Hanover County chapter of the NAACP.
"Being where we lived downtown, we were surrounded by that (protest) activity," Tritten said. "We were just trying to find our lane."
In very tangible ways, Tritten said, the "GROW" album led to "Luz De Vida II" after he re-connected with some old Arizona friends after a Zoom call.
"I love how it's come full circle," he said.
Now, he said, "Our goal is to make this an annual event," with a new release each year benefiting Homicide Survivors, Inc., along with a corresponding concert in Tuscon.
"A Rich Life & Longing," the fifth track on "Luz De Vida II," is by the internationally known hip-hop artist and beatmaker L'Orange, who grew up in Wilmington and lived here until he was 20. He recently moved back to North Carolina to live in Asheville.
"I literally started there. That is my origin point," he said of Wilmington, where he could often be found digging through stacks of vinyl at Gravity Records. (L'Orange said he has vinyl he purchased from Gravity '"literally on my turntable right now.")
L'Orange, who is half of the hip-hop duo Marlowe with the Wilmington-based rapper Solemn Brigham, records for Arizona label Mello Music Group. Marlowe's music was used for a national commercial with 7-Eleven stores earlier this year.
He said an old friend of his who's also friends with Tritten reached out to him about "Luz De Vida II" and "it just seemed like a good fit, something I wanted to contribute to and be a part of," he said. "It was for a good cause."
L'Orange, who makes samples-based hip-hop and beats "the way they would've made hip-hop in the '90s," said that "there was a beat I'd been working on. I guess that (on the 'Luz De Vida II' album) is where the beat was supposed be."
L'Orange and Brigham have both released solo records this year: "The World Is Still Chaos, But I Feel Better" (L'Orange) and "South Sinner Street" (Brigham). Earlier this year, they toured England for Brigham's solo album, playing for sold-out crowds.
Tritten said he was particularly happy to have a song by L'Orange on "Luz De Vida II," in part because of the Wilmington connection, but also because "Nothing sounds like L'Orange."
