Xiao'an writes narratively compelling and whimsically imaginative music for media, with a physical, palpably tactile, and joyous craftsmanship.​

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His aesthetic spans many worlds, drawing from a foundation of jazz, interpolated with his years working closely with orchestras on new classical music, and refracted through the lens of electronic production for an eclectic result.

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No stranger to commercial work, he has composed advertising music for billion dollar brands, soundtracks for mobile games with millions of players, and in 2024 was an invited judge at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. His company, Li & Ortega, has provided game audio outsourcing services to such companies as Tencent and Ubisoft.​​

Though lucrative, commercial work has taken its toll and today he is actively working on repairing his relationship with music by creating evocative original work and mentoring a new generation as a professor at Berklee College of Music.