SSEYO was founded in 1990 by the Intermorphic founders Tim Cole and Pete Cole, and with friend Jon Pettigrew (see also early SSEYO in Credits). In our 30 year journey SSEYO may be our past, but Intermorphic (which owns all past SSEYO IP) is our future.
Although SSEYO pioneered many things, it was best known through Brian Eno's use of SSEYO Koan Pro for his 1996 released Generative Music 1 with SSEYO Koan Software (published by SSEYO and Opal Music) and also “miniMIXA”, a powerful mobile music mixer first released in 2004.
In 2002 SSEYO was acquired by Tao Group whose assets were sold in 2007, which was why we then started Intermorphic - we wanted to continue our life's work in creating generative apps to help generate ideas and deliver unique "inmo" experiences. But, where did SSEYO Koan go? In 2007 it evolved into Intermorphic Noatikl, which in 2017 itself evolved into Wotja!
Please refer to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to view the old SSEYO website and for further details on SSEYO or Tao Group (you may need to be patient as the IAWM is a bit temperamental).
The first archived SSEYO site is from November 1996 and the last for the SSEYO site was March 7 2007 (after which Tao Group cleansed it of all SSEYO information). When accessed from there the menuing no longer seems to work, and some versions now redirect you back to the intermorphic website (in which case try using sseyoindex.html after the SSEYO domain in the Wayback Machine, or sseyo.html).
Some links below in the Announcements section are direct to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
1986 |
The beginnings...Tim Cole had the initial idea for Koan. |
1990![]() |
SSEYOSSEYO was founded in 1990 and Tim Cole & Pete Cole started developing the SSEYO Koan Generative Music Engine (SKME) [which later was at the core of the SSEYO Koan Interactive Audio Platform (SKIAP)]. |
1992-94![]() |
SSEYO Koan PlusBy 1992 the first version of Koan had gone into beta with a small group of select testers. SSEYO Koan Plus software was published in 1994 and distributed by Koch Media. |
1992-95![]() |
SSEYO Koan ProAfter a long development cycle, SSEYO Koan Pro V1.0 was published in 1995 and went on to be updated and extended several times in the following years. SSEYO Koan Pro was a powerful generative music authoring system. |
1996![]() |
Generative Music 1 with SSEYO Koan SoftwareIn 1995 we managed (with Koan Plus) to bring SSEYO Koan to the attention of Brian Eno - and it turned out he was interested in using it! He started creating Koan pieces with SSEYO Koan Pro which, in April 1996, lead to the publication of his seminal title “Generative Music 1 with SSEYO Koan software”. Luckily for researchers, Eno's early relationship with SSEYO Koan was captured in his 1995 diary "A Year with Swollen Appendices" published in 1996 and which includes several references to SSEYO Koan and various meetings with the Coles (primarily Tim Cole) and also Jon Pettigrew. |
1996![]() |
SSEYO Koan XKoan X was an easy to use, "Drag 'n' mix" system for generative music. It let you drag generative elements onto a mixing canvas (drag-and-drop) and then mix/modify the elements, including their pitch, pan and volume. Each element in the mix created its music according to what other elements were doing - they were all aware of each other, creating in that context and so it was a "group composition" so to speak. Koan X also let you control piece level rules, too, and allowed the mix elements to move randomly with a variety of flocking mechanisms (physics). It was probably a first in terms of generative music (see Sound On Sound 1997 review of Koan X). |
1996-97![]() |
Niskala with SSEYO Koan SoftwareLandmark generative music release by pioneering generative artist Jamuud (David Muddyman) of Loop Guru. Featured Koan pieces written and recorded in 1996. |
1995-97![]() |
Float with SSEYO Koan SoftwareLandmark generative music release by pioneering generative artist Timothy Didymus. Featured Koan pieces written and recorded between 1995 and 1996 |
1998![]() |
Koan Essentials Morphing Drum and BassA fun Drag 'n' Mix title that included Koan X Silver and a number of SF2 and WAV audio samples licensed from Zero G. |
1997-2001![]() |
The SSEYO Koan Interactivity Platform (2001 BAFTA Winner)This continued to be developed by us at SSEYO until 2001 (when it won the 2001 Interactive Entertainment BAFTA for Technical Innovation). SSEYO and Interactive AudioSince 1997 we were working with interactive music, simple music mixers, web toys, interactive music driven animations, music mixers with music driven animations, click-play instruments, email music, "Do the space shake" etc. (all the above examples require the no longer available Koan Interactive Music plugin to play, however)! SSEYO and Vector AudioIn 2000 & 2001 we found ways to deliver sounds in one SMS: we called this approach vector audio ("VA"). Intermorphic has continued working with / developing VA approaches meaning that social media shareable Wotja URLs (which use a URL file format) can play entire generative music pieces, fully loaded with FX and including various display and visualiser settings. |
2002 |
In 2002 our company SSEYO was acquired by Tao Group. |
2002-2007![]() |
SSEYO miniMIXA (2005 BAFTA Winner)At Tao we set about building the intent Sound System [iSS]. This was a comprehensive audio framework and set of related technologies specifically suited to use on mobile. It included a mixer, modular synthesiser, midi synthesiser and a host of other things. One of the products that came out of this was Tao's APRE (Advanced Polyphone Ringone Engine), deployed with Tao's Java Engine. Following the completion of that work, and starting in 2004, we built the first version of SSEYO miniMIXA which went on to win the 2005 Interactive Entertainent BAFTA for Music. SSEYO miniMIXA V2 was released in 2006 and SSEYO miniMIXA V3 was due for release in 2007, but for the demise of Tao Group in June 2007. |
2007- |
IntermorphicWe worked at Tao Group until June 2007 when Tao Group's assets were sold. Many of the engineering staff and management of Tao Group went on to form a new company, Antix Labs which has sadly now also gone. We wanted to continue our life's work in creating generative music and creativity apps and we knew we had to start again. Before Tao Group's assets were sold, therefore, we co-founded Intermorphic to carry on our work and the rest is history! Noatikl became the spiritual successor to Koan and provided Koan users a bridge to an exciting future for generative music, plus we created a new creative writing tool called Liptikl that used the 'cut-up technique'. The Noatikl engine also later featured in Mixtikl, the successor to miniMIXA. Since then we have continued innovating and forging a path forwards with software uses both generative and cut-up techniques and that benefits from all our past experience and learning. All our apps are now consolidated into one app brand, Wotja. |
Epilog |
SSEYO Intellectual Property (IP)In 2008 Intermorphic acquired from the VC that was behind Tao Group the rights to ALL of the SSEYO Intellectual Property (IP). This included (but was not limited to) the SSEYO.com domain, SSEYO trademarks and all the SSEYO, Koan, miniMIXA and iSS [intent Sound System] related technology IP (and which is now part of our Tech). As a result, we now own the whole body of work that is our "back catalogue". Safe in the knowledge that the valuable old SSEYO Koan IP is now safe in our "curatorial" hands we can and do draw upon it as and when we need to. Note: We did not take on SSEYO as a going concern, or get any customer records etc. |