Lee Soo-man Debuts A2O Soul and A2O Lite, Unveils 4D Tech
SM founder Lee Soo-man launched two groups, A2O Soul and A2O Lite, at KINTEX on October 12, his first Korean project since his HYBE non-compete expired.
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K-pop pioneer Lee Soo-man is back in the Korean music business. On Monday, October 12, 2026, his Singapore-headquartered A2O Entertainment introduced two new groups at once, the 15-member boy group A2O Soul and the nine-member girl group A2O Lite, at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. The showcase, "Welcome to Soulite From A2O Soul A2O Lite," was Lee's first Korean music project since his non-compete agreement with HYBE expired in February, according to The Korea Times and The Korea Herald. Debut singles out October 13 A2O Soul debuts with "Superstar" and A2O Lite with "Neon," both digital singles released at 6pm KST on Tuesday, October 13 (10am WAT). Maeil Business says "Superstar" draws on "new synthwave," reinterpreting 1980s synthesiser sounds, while "Neon" uses powerful bass, repetitive lyrics and distinctive vocals. The two groups share a fictional universe, "ACE (A2O Cosmic Epic)," set on the planet Soulite, where love, excitement and the sense of being alive are fading. Maeil Business says A2O Soul tells the story of boys who come to Earth in search of "soul," while A2O Lite's story is about girls of different colours who create a new light. The members Maeil Business reports that A2O Soul includes six Chinese and five Korean members, born between 2007 and 2012. A2O Lite has three Korean and three Chinese members, plus members from Japan and Thailand, born between 2008 and 2013, which the outlet says makes them the youngest idols in Korea. "Culture technology" and 4DGS Much of Lee's presentation focused on 4D Gaussian Splatting (4DGS), which films a performance with many cameras and combines the data in 3D space, so new camera angles can be created after filming. Both groups used it for their music videos. "It's a shift from a camera that shoots to a camera that creates," Lee said, as quoted by The Korea Times. He told The Korea Herald he traced the idea to experiments about 16 years ago using arrays of still cameras for freeze-frame effects in videos by Girls' Generation, SHINee, TVXQ and BoA. "Back then I asked myself what would happen if this could be done with video cameras," he said. The Korea Herald adds that Lee outlined plans for an extended-reality experience involving Samsung Electronics. Key facts Company: A2O Entertainment (Singapore HQ), key producer Lee Soo-man Showcase: October 12, 2026, KINTEX, Goyang A2O Soul: 15 members, debut single "Superstar" A2O Lite: nine members, debut single "Neon" Release: 6pm KST, October 13 (10am WAT) Music and performance: Yoo Young-jin Fan platform: BloomingTalk, with video calls and interactive live shows planned Why the return matters Lee founded SM Entertainment in 1995. In 2023 he clashed with SM's management and sold his 14.8 percent stake to HYBE, setting off a takeover battle between HYBE and Kakao that ended with HYBE's withdrawal, The Korea Times reports. The deal barred him from producing music in Korea for three years, and during that time he debuted A2O May, a mainly Chinese girl group, in 2024. "As long as K-pop groups are classified as singers, what a singer needs most is a song," Lee said at the showcase. "I wanted everything, from the song to the dance, music video, performance and concert, to be different from what came before." Familiar roots Longtime collaborator Yoo Young-jin, who spent nearly three decades at SM, oversees music and performance. Swedish producer Alex Karlsson told The Korea Herald: "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." For more on HYBE's year, see our HYBE Q2 report . A record for the future Lee also framed the data as a record of today's people. "What we are recording now is not merely video," he said, as quoted by Maeil Business. "It is preserving the people and reality of this era as data for the future." What's next The singles arrive on October 13. Maeil Business says A2O's fan platform, BloomingTalk, will add video calls and an interactive live talk show later this month. Explore more pop and music industry news on Entzopedia. Sources: The Korea Times | The Korea Herald | Maeil Business (MK)