Someone is the moniker for multi-disciplinary artist Tessa Rose Jackson. As Someone, she releases cosmic art and psychedelic pop music. The British born artist, based in Amsterdam, finds great joy exploring the intensity with which art and music can be fused in a way that they enhance each other fully.

Hence, in May 2019, she released her second EP ‘ORBIT’  in a rather unusual and innovative way - via an Augmented Reality art exhibition and smartphone app.

For each of the five songs she created a matching artwork, using abstract shapes to suggest scenes of distant planets and constellations. This matches the sound of the music, which is filled to the brim with warm synthesizer soundscapes and psychedelic bass lines infusing a driving energy. And floating above it all, her soft and entrancing voice that draws the listener into her world. When viewed through a tablet or phone the artworks come to life, and the song linked to that piece will start playing through the visitor’s headphones. Each artwork reacts differently, some inviting the viewer to interact, build their own cosmic star-systems for example, or help put together a slowly disintegrating room. Others are more hypnotic and surround the viewer with a slowly expanding 3d environment, immersing them fully in the music.

The lyrics discuss how it feels to be alive in this day and age - unsure about the future and how to deal with daily life. However, Someone also infuses her works with a deep positivity, bringing lightness to otherwise heavier subject matters. She uses the metaphor of orbiting planets to reflect our overstimulated generation. It suggests that in spending so much time on our phones and social media, being constantly exposed to external distractions, we are ‘orbiting’ around each other and our passions, rarely actually touching, resting, focusing long enough to truly connect. In this context, the ‘ORBIT’ exhibition aims to create a peaceful and focused space where the public can fully immerse themselves in Someone’s new work.

When she takes to the stage with her 5-piece band, Someone aims to create an equally immersive  experience. She created trippy animations that she projects onto a see-through screen in front of the band. These visuals build together with the musical dynamics throughout each song, enhancing her story-telling and bringing the band and the audience together into the same surrealist universe.

In July 2019, Someone released an impromptu EP as an hommage to her great heroes: Air. The EP - entitled Airspace - contains five Air tracks, performed by Someone as dreamy, semi-acoustic versions that slip easily into Someone’s growing repertoire.

The ‘ORBIT’ exhibition and live show was presented in January 2019 at Eurosonic in the Netherlands to great enthusiastic response. NME wrote: ‘Amsterdam alt-pop artist Someone steals the week, singing behind a transparent screen full of space waves, floating planets and sunrises.’ … ‘Mark our words, Someone is gonna be someone.’

But 2019 is promising to be an even more exciting year for Someone. Having already played at Supersonic (Paris) in May, she will be returning to Paris to present ‘ORBIT’ at MaMa festival in October, followed up by BIME festival (Bilbao) in November.