Lee Soo-man Returns With A2O Soul and A2O Lite, Pairing New Music With 4D Performance Technology

Two New Groups and a Performance You Can Enter

Lee Soo-man introduced 24 new performers across two groups at KINTEX Exhibition Center 2, Hall 9, in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, on October 12, 2026. His Singapore headquartered company, A2O Entertainment, presented the 15 member boy group A2O Soul and nine member girl group A2O Lite alongside technology intended to let audiences revisit a recorded performance from different positions.

Their first songs, A2O Soul's "Superstar" and A2O Lite's "Neon," were scheduled for simultaneous worldwide release at 6 p.m. on October 13. Both groups performed live for the first time at the joint showcase, titled Welcome to Soulite From A2O Soul A2O Lite.

The event joined three parts of Lee's new project: music overseen by longtime collaborator Yoo Young-jin, a fictional universe connecting A2O's artists, and a recording system that reconstructs performers moving through three dimensional space. Lee said both groups' music videos used 4D Gaussian Splatting, or 4DGS, through a filming approach A2O calls INFINITE.

For the SM Entertainment founder, now A2O's key producer and visionary leader, the showcase marked a return to producing groups for the Korean market after restrictions attached to his 2023 share sale to HYBE ended. It was not his first project since leaving SM: A2O had already introduced the girl group A2O May in 2024.

A Return After the SM Ownership Battle

Lee founded SM Entertainment in 1995 and helped build the training and production model behind acts including H.O.T., BoA, TVXQ, Girls' Generation, SHINee, EXO, Red Velvet, NCT and aespa. His departure followed a dispute with SM's management and a contest for control involving HYBE and Kakao.

In 2023, Lee sold his 14.8 percent SM stake to HYBE. The takeover battle ended with HYBE withdrawing, while Lee's agreement prevented him from producing music in Korea for three years. Reports differ on when that restriction expired: several place its end in February 2026, while another gives March. All describe the restriction as having ended before the October showcase.

The return to domestic music production should also be distinguished from a return to public appearances. Lee delivered a keynote at the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers World Congress in Seoul in May 2024, about two years and five months before the A2O launch.

The sequence leading to the new groups spans several years:

• 2023: Lee left SM and sold his 14.8 percent stake to HYBE, agreeing to restrictions on music production in Korea.
• 2024: Lee established A2O Entertainment and introduced A2O May, a girl group made up mainly of Chinese members.
• February or March 2026: Reports place the expiration of the three year restriction in different months.
• October 12, 2026: A2O Soul and A2O Lite made their first live appearances at the Goyang showcase.
• October 13, 2026: "Superstar" and "Neon" were scheduled for release at 6 p.m.

Who Are A2O Soul and A2O Lite?

The two new groups bring together members from Korea, Japan, China, Thailand and the United States. Their average ages were described as being in the middle to later teenage years, although individual ages were not detailed at the launch.

A2O Soul's roster was given as Moon, Seoha, Hansung and See-one from Korea; Lucien from Korea and the United States; Sora, Gaku and Sono from Japan; Teo, Jun, Tai, Zai, Ayden and Zet from China; and Alure from Thailand.

A2O Lite's members were listed as Young, Vora and Ayune from Korea; Himeki from Japan; Xili, Merci and Aijing from China; Rada from Thailand; and Oa, who holds United States and Japanese citizenship. Reports use different English spellings for two members, with Siri and Aiching appearing elsewhere instead of Xili and Aijing.

The showcase began with a joint dance involving members of both groups before their separate songs. Despite the large combined roster, the performers did not speak to the press during the presentation. Lee's company vision and recording technology received more explanation than the members' individual personalities or backgrounds.

Different Sounds With Familiar Musical Roots

A2O Lite's "Neon" was presented as Zalpha pop, a label aimed at Generation Z and Generation Alpha. Its musical ingredients include prominent bass, electronic sounds, strong dance rhythms and an a cappella element. The song expresses an ambition to move beyond the moment in which the group is already shining.

A2O Soul's "Superstar" takes a different direction. A2O calls it New Synthwave, drawing on the synthesizer sounds associated with 1980s acts such as a-ha and New Order. Its melodies and vocals were described as more wistful, matching lyrics about admiration and longing for a superstar.

The release descriptions are not identical across reports. Several call both songs debut digital singles, while others identify "Superstar" more specifically as a track released ahead of A2O Soul's debut album. "Neon" is consistently described as A2O Lite's debut digital single. No release date for the full A2O Soul album was given.

Yoo Young-jin, who spent nearly three decades at SM and produced hits for aespa and NCT, oversees music and performance for both acts. The reported collaborators on "Superstar" include HAAN, GENT! and Yoo, while "Neon" was made with Dem Jointz and Yoo.

Swedish songwriter and producer Alex Karlsson attended the showcase. His SM credits include Super M's "Tiger Inside," NCT Dream's "Fireflies" and SHINee's "Undercover." He described the new music as combining recognizable melodic roots with elements outside Lee's previous work:

You can still hear some roots.

But there's a lot of new stuff in there that I don't think we've heard from SM.

That combination helps explain the launch's central tension. A2O is presenting new genre names and viewing technology, but its musical leadership connects directly to the production tradition Lee built at SM.

Soulite Connects the Artists Through One Story

The groups belong to ACE, short for A2O Cosmic Epic, a fictional universe centered on the planet Soulite. A2O May, the five member girl group introduced in 2024, also shares that universe.

Soulite is described as a place of material abundance where residents can have what they want, yet feelings such as love, excitement and the sense of being alive are fading. A2O Soul's story follows boys who leave the planet for Earth to search for the emotions and energy missing from their lives.

A2O Lite's story uses colors shaped by each member's memories and emotions. Those individual colors combine to create new light, giving "Neon" a role within the narrative rather than leaving the fictional setting separate from the song.

The company also envisages subunits with different combinations of members, as well as solo and project activities. The shared universe provides a way to connect those changing formations. Specific lineups and release schedules for such projects were not announced.

Lee explained that A2O stands for Alpha to Omega, with an ending connected to another beginning. That idea of continuing change appears in both the company's name and its plans for artists to work across several formats.

What 4D Gaussian Splatting Changes

The technical centerpiece of the showcase was 4DGS. Multiple cameras record a performance simultaneously from different positions, and their footage is combined to reconstruct the performers and their movements in three dimensional space. Time supplies the fourth dimension, allowing the reconstruction to represent a moving performance rather than a static scene.

The practical distinction from ordinary video is the freedom to generate viewpoints after filming. A conventional recording shows the angles captured and selected by the production team. A reconstructed scene can let the viewer change position within the recorded space instead of watching only those selected shots.

A headset demonstration at the event was described as allowing movement among the performing artists, including views from the center of their formation and from behind them. That demonstration indicates a different viewing format, though it does not establish when audiences will receive the same experience at home.

Lee, A2O's key producer, explained his ambition by comparing this approach with earlier recording methods:

Photography captured a single moment in a person's life, while video captured the passage of time and movement. Now, 4DGS takes that a step further, making it possible to return to the space and time in which something was recorded and view that moment from any position or angle.

His description is an ambition for the system, not a published technical benchmark. The launch did not specify the capture resolution, processing requirements or limits on how far viewers can move through the reconstructed scene.

From Still Camera Arrays to Samsung Collaboration

Lee traced the project to experiments about 16 years earlier with what he called the Matrix Camera System. Arrays of still cameras created sequences that appeared to circle a performer frozen in midair. The technique was used in music videos featuring Girls' Generation, SHINee, TVXQ and BoA.

Reports differ on the size of those earlier arrays. One gives 100 to 120 cameras, while another describes hundreds. The shared point is that many still photographs were combined to create a moving viewpoint around a moment that appeared suspended.

The new approach replaces that frozen moment with moving performers. Lee said A2O's INFINITE filming system applies 4DGS to actual productions, including the two debut music videos.

Lee also described collaboration with Samsung Electronics on an extended reality experience. Extended reality, or XR, is an umbrella term covering experiences that surround the viewer with digital content or combine it with their physical surroundings. The headset demonstration was presented as a virtual reality experience.

The collaboration's commercial details were not announced. The launch did not identify a consumer headset model, a public release date, pricing or whether the experience would work across devices from different manufacturers. Lee thanked Samsung for the collaboration and CJ ENM for helping present A2O's new beginning at the event.

Blooming Talk Extends the Fan Connection

A2O's technology plans also reach beyond recorded performances. Lee introduced Blooming Talk, a communication platform intended to connect fans and artists, with a launch planned for October and video conversation functions expected toward the end of the month.

Descriptions of the platform include interactions with AI avatars of group members as well as communication with the artists themselves. Those are distinct experiences: an avatar interaction is not a conversation with the person it represents. The presentation did not explain in detail how the two would be labeled or separated for users.

Lee also outlined interactive live talk shows in which several fans and celebrities could see, hear and speak with one another in real time. He envisaged the same shared space supporting concerts, conversations and discussions.

The October launch and late October video functions are the nearest announced milestones after the singles. No exact date was given for the wider talk show format, and prices, access limits and arrangements for selecting participating fans were not disclosed.

Together, these plans address two separate parts of the fan experience. The 4DGS project changes where a viewer can look during a recorded performance. Blooming Talk is intended to change how fans communicate with artists, while adding AI based interactions alongside human ones.

Future Uses Remain Proposals, Music Comes First

Lee suggested that recordings of human movement could eventually serve as training data for artificial intelligence and robots, helping them learn about actions, environments and spaces. That proposal goes beyond the music videos and fan demonstrations introduced at the launch.

No specific robotics partnership, training program or dataset release was announced. The prospect of reusing performance data also introduces practical questions about permission, ownership and how recordings would be stored or shared. Lee discussed the responsibility attached to recording people, but the event did not set out rules governing those possible future uses.

Speaking as A2O's key producer, Lee connected the recording project to choices about preserving human activity:

We must think not only about what technology can do, but about what we record and what we leave for the future.

For now, the firmest parts of the project are the two groups, their first performances and the scheduled song releases. The headset demonstration shows an application of the recording approach, while the broader XR service, fan platform and AI uses have different levels of detail and no common launch date.

Lee repeatedly brought the presentation back to music. He argued that a group's difference must begin with its song and continue through dance, video and performance. New technology alone, in his account, would not be enough if people did not like the result.

The October 13 releases are therefore the first public test of A2O Soul and A2O Lite as musical acts. Later October communication plans represent the next announced step, while the debut album schedule and wider availability of the immersive performances remain unannounced.

Key Points

• A2O Soul has 15 members and A2O Lite has nine. Both first performed live at KINTEX in Goyang on October 12, 2026.
• "Superstar" and "Neon" were scheduled for worldwide release at 6 p.m. on October 13.
• Yoo Young-jin oversees music and performance for both groups, with HAAN, GENT! and Dem Jointz among the reported song collaborators.
• The groups share the A2O Cosmic Epic universe with A2O May, centered on the fictional planet Soulite.
• Lee said both new music videos use 4DGS through A2O's INFINITE filming system.
• Samsung collaboration concerns an XR viewing experience, but consumer access details were not announced.
• Blooming Talk was planned for October, with video conversations expected later in the month and interactive live talk shows to follow.
• Reports differ on whether Lee's restriction on domestic production expired in February or March 2026.