B6, (originally known as Lou Nanli), is from Shanghai, China. His career began in 1999 and he became one of China's leading electronic producers and composers. He is also a well respected Video and installation artist.
1999 - 2007: Exploration of avant-garde and experimental electronic music
In his early years, B6 founded the music label "Isolation Music", which produced various Avant-Garde music, including Experimental Electronic Music, Sound Art, Ambient, Industrial Noise, to name a few genres. During this time, B6 was also the designer behind the art works for many albums and posters that emerged in China's indie music scene. At the same time, he composed music scores that accompanied various art installations and videos. While B6 remains his pseudonym for his musical endeavors, his art installation creations credited under his given name Lou Nanli have been exhibited in many art museums and galleries at both domestic and abroad.
Later, B6 expanded his musical direction in a more diversified way. From 2003 to 2006, he produced and published a series of works of intelligent dance music (IDM) and ambient music. In 2006, B6 released "B6 Box", a collection of his music works in a six CD boxset, which included many published and unpublished ones. "B6 Box" was issued internationally through Rough Trade, and was sold out within one month. Within that year, B6 and singer J Jay formed the Synth Pop Group, IGO. In 2007, IGO published the album "Synth Love" under the label Modern Sky (China) and Universal Music (Hong Kong) to critical acclaim.
2008 - 2010: Living Abroad, Achievements for Minimal Electronics and Pop Music
In 2008, B6 released the album "Post Haze" under Modern Sky, the album depicted a new turning point in B6's music, embracing minimal techno. Post Haze became a landmark album in the history of Chinese electronic music. It was released under the label Sub-Stream (Sweden) in 2009. Simultaneously, he released Post Haze Remixes, a collection of remixes of Post Haze from international DJs and producers.
In 2009, B6 released a series of singles and remixes in Europe to positive reviews. Within that same year, he was invited to both art institutions and artist residencies in France, Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavian. He was also invited to perform all over the world, including prestigious venues and events such as Berlin's Tresor, Haus der Kultures der Welt, Cologne's Kompakt's Total Confusion event, Paris' Cité de la Musique, Demark's Distortion and Spot Festival, Sweden's Volt Music Festival, Belgium's Vooruit, Australia's Hybrid Art Museum, Japan's Asia Force, Singapore's Esplandade, Shanghai World Expo, which have proved B6's strength to be an international artist.
B6 has also built up long-term collaborative relationships in China with many renowned musicians and Pop singers. He also was the producer for many modern Chinese Pop musicians and albums. His collaborators include Li Quan, Wan Xiaokun and Tan Weiwei to name a few. His songs have also secured first tier positions in pop charts as well as winning him numerous awards. Furthermore, in 2012, his early work My Post-Rock Yard was the accompanying music in a United Nations promotional short film.
2010 - 2017: The Crossover of the Practice of Multi-media Arts and the Classical Film
From 2010 to 2017, B6 got involved in the fields of multi-media installations, video arts and conceptual arts under his autonym of Lou Nanli. His works are mainly created in the form of a combination of multi-screen videos and multi-channel surround sound system. He has cooperated with many domestic and overseas art institutions and projects, and his works have been exhibited in various museums, art galleries, and art spaces at home and abroad.
In 2014, B6 produced an incidental music for the Shanghai Legend silent film "Spider Cave" lost for more than 80 years, and a live performance was conducted for it at the Closing Ceremony of the Shanghai International Film Festival that year. After that, B6 performed at home and abroad for this film for many times, which attracted the attention of the film industry. From 2016 to 2017, B6 cooperated with classical musicians to re-compose and produce classical music works, and to perform his installation work "Cube" in Shanghai International Arts Festival, Shanghai West Bund, Boiler Room and Shanghai Concert Hall, which was well acclaimed by the music industry and the media.
2018 - 2022: Stage, TV, Big Screen
In 2018, B6 was invited to compose the music for the theatre play "Blossoms". The stage play was performed in shanghai and Beijing in the same year, and achieved unprecedented success in both art and commerce. The next year, "Blossoms" was rated as the Annual Grand Show of the 2019 One Drama Awards. In the same year, B6 was invited to the Arctic by the Norway's TIFF (Tromsø International Film Festival) for the musical creation and performance. After returning home, B6 began to create the Soundtracks of the famous televised documentary series "Life Matters Season II". The following year, the episodes won the Magnolia Award for Best Documentary Series, and was well received unprecedentedly online and offline. In July, B6 conducted a cooperation with Shanghai Symphony Orchestra to perform his chamber works in the form of electronic music, string quartet and piano, which was recognized by the domain of classical-music. In September, invited by the BFI (British Film Institute), B6 went to London and Sheffield to participate in the one-month residency and exchange project of international film composers on behalf of China.
In 2019, B6 wrote music for the film "The Wild Goose Lake", a film of the Director Diao Yinan. In that year, the film entered the official selection of 2019 Festival de Cannes, and premiered in China in the same year. In May, B6 was invited to compose soundtrack for "Vision & Virtuosity", a grand exhibition of Tiffany & Co, and he published the vinyl album "Vision & Virtuosity" in Modern Sky Records in the same year. In autumn, B6 went to Oslo, Tromsø, Paris, New York and Los Angeles respectively by turns for a two-month collection, investigation and exchange to prepare for the subsequent works.
In 2020, After the outbreak of Covid, B6 was invited to compose the music for the documentary "Level-One" produced by SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film and Television) during the lock down. This music piece was recorded in Beijing in cooperation with China Philharmonic Orchestra. Later, B6 composed the theme track for the documentary "Where the Sawa Flows" directed by the writer Chen Danyan in the same year. In September, B6 was invited by the world-famous Italian director Luca Guadagnino to write music for his short film "Salvatore Ferragamo - Campaign Spring Summer 2021" for Ferragamo. At the end of the year, B6 composed for the film "Awakening Spring" by the Director Wang Mu, and the animation film "To The Bright Side" which was awarded the Grand Prize Feature Film of NYICFF (New York Int'l Children's Film Festival) in early 2022.
In 2021, B6 composed music for 40 episodes of spy/war drama series "Infernal Affairs" directed by Qi Dao, the film "Fire on The Plain" directed by Zhang Ji, the theatre play "Blossoms II" and the documentary series "Flowing China". Among them, "Flowing China" won the 3rd Outstanding Documentary Award of SARFT.
In 2022, B6 starts to write music for CCTV's documentary series "Second Life", and starts to compose for feature film "Carefree Days" directed by Liang Ming, "May" directed by Luo Dong.
