Israel Strom
Israel (IJ) Jude Strom (born December 13, 2003) is a Canadian composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, theorist and educator from Calgary, Alberta. His work, spanning multiple projects and collaborations, including the release of Fizz Vol. 1 and touring as a keyboardist with Knower. Strom has worked, recorded and performed with phonon, Louis Cole, Genevieve Artadi, Sam Wilkes, David Binney, Anatole Muster, Jonathan Berroa, Rob Aroujo, Oliver Crosby, Zack Grooves, Saxologic, Daedelus, Suzie Collier and Jules Buckley.
On October 30, 2022, Strom posted an Instagram reel titled “Polytonal Polyrhythm Warmup”. This video started a viral trend of pianists playing polyrhythmic etudes, with Strom’s etudes garnering 20M+ views across platforms. His YouTube video, titled “10:2 10[4:3+7]:2 12:4 11:4 3[9:1+4:1+9:1]:4” is the most watched video about nested tuplets on the internet.
Strom was the keyboardist for Louis Cole’s May 2023 trio tour, and has since toured several times with Cole and Knower, including Louis Cole & Metropole Orkest’s “Nothing” tour in 2025 conducted by Jules Buckley.
On April 17, 2025, Strom, phonon and collaborators Ben Francis and Noa Denton released Fizz Vol. 1, which was crucial in codifying the Fizz genre and igniting the Fizz movement. Strom has been one of the most vocal apologists for the Fizz movement, being involved to varying degrees in Fizz music, explanatory Fizz content, Fizzmemes and FizzWiki.
Early Life
Strom was born in Calgary, Alberta on December 13, 2003. He has Haitian, English and Swedish ancestry. He is also great-great-nephew of former premier of Alberta, Harry Strom.
His grandfather, Raymond Strom introduced him to GarageBand at the age of 5, forming his passion for music production. Starting at the age of 9, he took piano and bass lessons from Derek Stoll, a Jazz piano instructor at the Mount Royal University Conservatory. Strom played keyboards and bass on his church’s worship team from age 11-12.
Discography
At the age of 15, Strom began putting out a series of albums, releasing his first album, “IJ’s Adventure” on August 25, 2019, later releasing “Adaptation” on June 13, 2020 and “Lightning Portal” on August 30, 2020. “My Turn” from Adaptation was later re-arranged by Everything Yes for their debut album “Volume 1”, and was performed live on their tour with Sungazer.
On April 28, 2022, Strom, Daniel Hayn and Noa Denton released “Database”, a Jazztronica EP featuring a wide range of Jazz instrumentalists.
On April 17, 2025, Strom and phonon released Fizz Vol. 1.
Albums
- IJ's Adventure (2019)
- Adaptation (2020)
- Lightning Portal (2020)
- Fizz Vol. 1 (2025)
EPs
- The Dream Tapes (2020)
- Field Trip (2024)
Music Theory
Strom’s most notable music theoretic contributions include:
Stromian Tuplet Notation
Bridge Tuplets
Controversy
Strom received backlash for speaking out publicly against the use of generative AI in music, calling for AI music to be labelled.
“I personally think that if your song includes any AI generated audio, you should have to put a label right on the album cover. And if you’re not comfortable with such a label taking up space on your album cover, why are you comfortable with putting AI in your music?” - IJ
Strom has also been criticized for using "made-up" Fizz music theory terms like "bridge tuplets", and trying to bring back obscure alternate names for the melodic minor modes like "cappadician" and "asgardian"