Stratøs _

Michigan native Stratøs is a saxophonist, composer, producer, photographer and cinematographer whose presence in the Los Angeles scene is rapidly growing. Having embraced the melodies of the Cool School early in his development, Stratøs now leaves behind a unique sonic imprint as an artist. His affinity for analog textures is felt not only in his music, but his photography. By combining the two, he’s created an entire ecosystem brimming with life.

Stratøs is a three-time winner of the Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award from 2019–21. Additionally, he was awarded the ASCAP Foundation’s Johnny Mandel Prize and selected as a National Sawdust New Works Commission Contest winner. The latter granted the composer the opportunity to write for the world-renowned JACK Quartet.

In 2017, Stratøs began working with Charlie Burg. The saxophonist composed on several of Burg’s works such as “Intentions,” “Lancaster Nights”—which was featured in the 2023 film “Anyone But You”—and the artist’s 2022 debut LP “Infinitely Tall.” In 2022, he began working with comedian, producer and writer Jordan Temple. The saxophonist is featured both on Temple’s one-man show “Sweet Lorraine” and can be seen briefly on the ABC comedy series “Abbott Elementary.” In 2025, Stratøs co-produced and engineered “Right Away (feat. Stratøs)” by artist and rapper donSMITH which was featured in the NBA 2K25 official in-game soundtrack.

Stratøs released his first album, “Planets,” in 2021. The LP is entirely self-produced and features the likes of Alekos Syropoulos (Mac Miller, Anderson .Paak, Vulfpeck), 2019 JUNO award nominee Andrew Rathbun, John Hébert (Fred Hersch, Maria Schneider) and renowned saxophonist/composer/producer David Binney (Louis Cole, Knower, Donny McCaslin). The album is the amalgamation of the producer’s diverse musical identities. Reaching from the visceral, distorted sounds and grooves of the death metal world to the serene soundscapes akin to Hayao Miyazaki film scores, “Planets” sought to connect a narrative throughline between these juxtaposing elements.

His second project, “Hohenheim Suites,” is a full-length jazz-chamber album inspired by Hiromu Arakawa’s 2001 graphic novel “Fullmetal Alchemist.” The album was co-produced by Rathbun and features a return from Hébert on upright bass, as well as an appearance by the JACK Quartet. The album was released independently on May 6, 2022.

Stratøs’ most recent project is “Challenger Deep,” a 10-movement work written for electronic chamber orchestra. Sonically, he’s spent the last several years developing a space for this music to exist. “Challenger Deep” synthesizes the heavily emphasized audio production elements of “Planets” with the more compositional, thematic aesthetics of “Hohenheim Suites” to create something wholly new. As somewhat of a response to the space-themed debut LP, “Challenger Deep” investigates some of the deeper issues modern society faces, but through a particular lens: The composer’s late grandfather, Edward Codrington, was a fisherman from Barbados in the early 20th century. His unique status as a master of his craft with a rare motorized vessel gave him access to waters that other fishermen couldn’t venture into. In the vein of Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy,” Stratøs intends to use this motif to tell a story where Codrington descends from the surface of the sea all the way down to the Challenger Deep, which is the lowest part of Earth’s deepest ocean, the Mariana Trench. His journey will be the catalyst for Stratøs to explore themes ranging from the effects of climate change to the ever-mysterious contents of Earth’s oceans to the fates of enslaved African people whose bodies never made it to the Americas and beyond.

Composition