It was Francesca Bonci’s work on the official music video for Tombstones In Their Eyes – “Alive and Well” that first drew my attention: a visual narrative that is instinctive, meticulous, and deeply intertwined with the band’s textured Psychedelic Rock. This fifth collaboration with the band represents not only her growing mastery as a visual artist but also her unique ability to translate music into a language of light, color, and motion.
From this compelling starting point, Francesca’s artistic journey unfolds across live performances, analog experimentation, high-profile collaborations, and international projects, revealing a practice both deeply personal and universally communicative.
Read our article about “Alive and Well” official video here: https://progrockjournal.com/news-tombstones-in-their-eyes-unveil-the-official-music-video-for-alive-and-well-from-upcoming-album/
From Visual Instinct to the Live Stage
Francesca’s passion for visual art predates her experience with VJing, rooted in a childhood fascination with translating sound into imagery. Her early inclination to represent music visually became the seed for a career that bridges intuition and technique.
Can you tell us how your passion for visual art and live VJing began? What were your early influences and experiences that drew you to this field?
I believe I’ve always had a passion for visual art — something innate. It’s my way of sensing the world and giving something back to others. Since I was a child, I’ve had this inclination to represent music through images, for example, and when I finally had access to equipment to create videos, I found the perfect medium to express what I felt inside. VJing — which for me is actually closer to scenography — was born from the need to create something emotional that could help music come to life on stage. I’m not a musician, but I love music deeply, and being able to feel like a member of the band, “playing” with images, is something I’ve always wished for.My first experiences as a live visual artist are relatively recent: my very first live show was in 2013, and since then I’ve had many opportunities around the world. I was already working extensively with bands on music videos, but I felt the urge to go beyond the limits of a finished video. I wanted to create something that could accompany artists on stage, something that could grow emotionally and transform together with the musical performance. So I began reaching out to bands and festivals around Europe. Honestly, I didn’t have any specific influences apart from my passion for the attitude and aesthetics of 1960s–70s video art, as well as music videos — since I grew up in the 1980s.
Her early experiences laid the foundation for a performative approach to visuals, emphasizing instinctive emotional resonance over purely aesthetic decoration.
Adapting Across Genres and Borders
Francesca’s collaborations span genres, countries, and musical contexts, each demanding a visual response attuned to the music’s emotional and conceptual core.
Your work spans many genres and countries. Can you describe a collaboration that pushed you creatively and how you adapted your visuals to the band’s sound and aesthetic?
It’s hard to choose one collaboration in particular, because they have all been so exciting and meaningful, but I can mention my performance with the German instrumental post-rock band LORIMER BURST in Hannover. I had previously worked with them on the sce-nography for a live music video, and they asked me to create a visual set for the release concert of their album Dispersion. The album explores space-related themes in a post-catastrophic world. It begins with a completely abandoned city on Earth, then takes a journey through distant planets, and
finally tells the incredible yet frightening story of the first chimpanzee sent into space. I recreated this immersive journey by imagining very colorful and suspended scenarios, letting myself be guided by their highly cinematic music, which alternates delicate moments with very powerful ones and evokes deep cosmic imagery — a metaphor for an emotional journey of the human being. One of the visuals I created for a song from the album also made it to the finals of the FFFB in Berlin.
These collaborations highlight her responsiveness and versatility, shaping her visual identity in conversation with each band’s sonic and aesthetic language.
Festivals and Pre-Covid Milestones
Before the pandemic, Francesca traveled across Europe performing at festivals like Vivid Post-Rock Festival in Norway, an experience that became a pivotal moment in her career. Here, the relationship between music and vision became tangible and widely recognized: her performances with Show Me A Dinosaur and Avast cemented her international reputation.
Before Covid, you traveled extensively for festivals and live performances. Can you share a moment at Vivid Postrock Festival that stands out as a turning point in your career?
I took part in the Vivid Post-Rock Festival twice, in 2017 and 2019, and both times were absolutely magical. The first time, I performed with the incredible Russian band Show Me A Dinosaur. It was also my first time in Norway, so you can imagine my excitement — and it definitely gave me a lot of visibility, because the festival (which sadly no longer exists) was truly amazing and very well followed. It had a family-like atmosphere and was incredibly professional at the same time. The second time, I performed with the band Avast. It was an incredible and overwhelming experience. I went there already feeling like a veteran, people were expecting something special from me, and the band I performed with live absolutely blew everyone away!
These performances confirmed that her visuals could live independently as part of the stage narrative, engaging audiences directly and emotionally.
From Instinct to Improvisation
Francesca’s instinctive approach guides her visual storytelling. Her process starts with a listening session, letting music evoke imagery and sensations naturally.
Your visual sets are known for being instinctive and emotional. Can you walk us through your process when translating a live performance into dynamic visual storytelling?
When I work on a piece of music, my first approach is an emotional listening session with my eyes closed, letting the music evoke images and sensations in me in a completely instinctive way — shapes, colors. From there, I start creating moving images that tell that journey. Whenever possible, with the help of the artists, I also try to understand the concept behind the project and study it so I can really step inside it and identify with the feelings that led the musicians to write those tracks. In the end, I try to give back the same emotions that the music has stirred in me.
Her improvisational fluency allows the visual narrative to breathe and evolve in real time.
Analog Experimentation and the Lockdown
During lockdown, Francesca transformed enforced pause into a creative laboratory, incorporating analog devices, vintage mixers, and CRT televisions. The result is a visual language that is instinctive, immediate, and unpredictable, interacting with music as if it were alive.
During the lockdown, you experimented with analog devices, old mixers, CRT televisions, and video recorders. How did these tools redefine your artistic language and what unexpected results did you discover?
The lockdown gave me the time — and the recklessness — to experiment with new analog tools, and this allowed me to elevate my work into something even more experimental and unpredictable. I integrated these tools into my digital setup, and they helped me discover new paths. During the lockdown, in parallel, I was lucky enough to collaborate with the London-based label Specimen Records, which gave me the freedom to experiment in a very extreme way, allowing me to understand how far I could go. I always create as if I were performing live, even when I’m working on a music video. I let myself be carried by the emotions of the moment, and while I use image-manipulation tools, such as video synthesizers, it feels as if I’m uncovering the essence of the material I’m manipulating — with a very cathartic approach.
This period gave rise to visual textures and methodologies that now inform her spontaneity and improvisation, bridging the gap between analogue tactility and digital precision.
Spontaneity and Place-Specific Visuals
Her personal project, Purple Moon Oneironauts, explores improvisation in response to music and environment.
Your improvisational visual sessions became a personal project during the pandemic. How do you approach spontaneity in your visuals while maintaining coherence with the music and space?
My personal project, purple moon oneironauts, was born as an oneiric and emotional flow that evolves and grows together with music and space. This is because its very nature is to be unrepeatable. As in every aspect of my artistic work, I let myself be carried by the music and try to translate the sensations it evokes in me at that specific moment, in an instinctive way and through a kind of improvisation. In turn, the music itself becomes influenced by the images, like a vast, endless oneiric loop. The space surrounding us can enter the journey both as a background and as an active element: a place, with its culture and peculiarities, can evoke emotional states that differ from those of another location — for both the audience and everyone involved. I often film in the place where I perform and use that material, but above all, this project was created with the intention of bringing together the artistic realities of the specific place where the performance happens.
High-Profile Collaborations: Pete International Airport
The collaboration with Peter Holmström and Pete International Airport represented a major leap, creating four videos and the album artwork in a professional setting, with contributions from artists like Rachel Goswell and Jagz Kooner. It was a project that merged international visibility, personal growth, and aesthetic experimentation.
Working with Peter Holmström (Pete International Airport) and creating four videos plus the album artwork, how did you conceptualize the visual narrative for these projects? What challenges or breakthroughs did you experience?
Working with Pete on his beautiful project was emotionally easy, because I’m a fan of his. His album also expressed the emotions that many of us experienced during the first months of the pandemic and lockdown. I found myself in front of the perfect soundtrack for something I was living through at that very moment. But at the same time, I was about to face quite a challenge. Until then, I had mostly worked in smaller, independent contexts. This was, of course, an opportunity for greater visibility, to collaborate with more well-known artists, and to work in a more professional environment. The tracks I worked on included contributions from artists like Rachel Goswell from Slowdive, or Jagz Kooner, known for his work with bands such as Primal Scream, Massive Attack, Manic Street Preachers, and Garbage. In the end, I found incredibly down-to-earth people who welcomed me with kindness and respect, and I didn’t feel any real difference compared to working in smaller contexts. The visibility and public response, however, were obviously much bigger and stronger, and many new opportunities opened up — a lot of interest and a lot of personal growth. Being involved in the Pete International Airport project also gave me hope and trust in the future during a terrible time.
Long-Term Collaborations and Artistic Rapport
Sincere, emotional connections underpin Francesca’s enduring collaborations.
Collaborating with Aniruddha Das, Federale, and other international artists, how do you establish a long-term artistic relationship that allows your visual identity to grow alongside the music?
In general, with almost all the artists I’ve collaborated with, I’ve gone on to build long-lasting working relationships. I don’t really know how it happens, but it does. Usually these collaborations are never just “simple collaborations” — they often turn into friendships. Maybe it’s this very sincere, visceral, emotional approach that leads people to connect and trust each other again and again. With Federale, I’ve only made one video so far, even though we’ve remained great friends, and I hope we’ll collaborate again in the future. With Ani, I’ve worked on several occasions
and projects, both live and for completed videos. She is a special person with whom I’ve also found myself sharing thoughts about life and the world.
Experimental and Classical Projects
Francesca has also ventured into Experimental and Classical contexts, with projects like ETUI and INOM RAMEN, demonstrating her adaptability while keeping a recognizable visual signature.
For projects like ETUI and INOM RAMEN, where you explored Experimental or Classical contexts, what new creative strategies did you develop that differ from your standard live visual work?
ETUI is a Swedish electro-indie duo that released their album in a very particular way, putting out each single on YouTube together with its own visual. I created a fully analog visual set for them by manipulating images on a cathode-ray tube TV and then digitizing the result. INOM RAMEN is a classical music work by the artist Robin Sandquist, with whom I had already collaborated by creating a video for his band SEJD. During the Covid period, he was preparing for his final exam at the Malmö Academy of Music and asked me to create the visual environments for his beautiful composition. It was an honor to be part of such an important moment in a young artist’s life, and it was incredibly inspiring to work in that kind of context. Robin was very young, and it was fascinating to collaborate with someone who, for example, had never lived through the VHS era, but was very curious and open to using that aesthetic in his project.
Return to Live Performance and Orchestral Integration
With the end of lockdown, Francesca returned to live shows, including her recent performance with Orchestra Olimpia in Pesaro, where her visuals complemented the orchestral textures and expanded her artistic reach.
As you return to live performances, such as your upcoming show at the Pesaro theater, how do you envision your visual work evolving for live orchestral or experimental settings?
As I’m answering you, the event in Pesaro with Orchestra Olimpia has already taken place. It was incredible to perform live again, especially in such a context! I had already worked with classical music — with Robin on his INOM RAMEN and with the Parallax Ensemble, an experimental classical orchestra born in Los Angeles — but this live experience was truly enlightening. Many people told me that my visuals work even better in this kind of setting, and I even received compliments from Silvia Colasanti, the composer of the piece Sentieri di Sangue. It’s an experience I would really like to explore further — I feel deeply connected to it.
This evolution reflects a core strength: visuals that inhabit space as protagonists, rather than passive backdrops.
Defining Moments and Artistic Philosophy
Looking back on your career so far, what do you consider the defining moments that shaped your approach to visual art and VJing, and how do they inform your future projects?
I’m not sure — maybe the festivals I’ve taken part in, but also the side experience at Specimen Records, when I participated in a series of sessions featured in the monthly show “MINDRAME” on DEEPSPACE RADIO. In those sessions, another visual artist and I were tasked with creating one-hour visual sets for artists from all over the world, starting with those on the Specimen Records roster.
How do you hope audiences perceive the relationship between your visuals and the music they accompany, and what do you consider your role in enhancing the overall artistic experience?
I believe the audience has already understood my way of translating music into images — or at least the response has always been very encouraging. I strongly believe in the power of art and of those who create it. I believe that I help people feel better, to experience immersive moments that elevate their spirit. Without any presumption, I feel that I do my work in a very sincere and passionate way, and I believe that, just as art saves me every day, it can also save the world in such uncertain and dark times.
Francesca Bonci’s Visual Mastery
Francesca Bonci’s work embodies the perfect synthesis of emotion, technical sophistication, and conceptual depth. From the visceral energy of “Alive and Well” to the ethereal expanses of Post-Rock and orchestral collaborations, she demonstrates consistency, adaptability, and imagination.
Her visuals do more than accompany music: they inhabit the sound, create narrative spaces, and engage audiences on multiple sensory levels. In a world where visual art for music is often decorative, Francesca’s work is authentic, immersive, and transformative — a testament to the future of live and multimedia performance.