Blending science with sound, Coco Francavilla transforms underwater acoustics into an emotional plea&nbsp;to protect the sea.

On a still spring afternoon in Ibiza, sounds sourced from beneath the surface of the sea swirl around the auditorium of the Palacio de Congresos de Ibiza. Mesmerising sonic waves, captured from deep beneath Mediterranean waters, form a symphony of clicks, groans and distant echoes. These sounds offer a glimpse into the language of marine life, shared with the audience by composer, producer and sound artist <a href="https://www.instagram.com/coco_francavilla/?hl=en">Coco Francavilla</a> as part of her 2025 <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/l-officiel-with-tedxdaltvila-coco-francavilla-italian-composer-producer-sound-engineer-ibiza">TEDx presentation</a>.
An Italian-born electronic music pioneer and producer, Francavilla has made Ibiza her home. The sea, she says, has become her most important collaborator. Her latest work, &ldquo;Posidonia Soundscapes&rdquo;, is a groundbreaking acoustic conservation project that blends science with art. &ldquo;It began with a feeling,&rdquo; she recalls. &ldquo;The sea was calling, and the more I listened, the more I realised it was delivering me an important message.&rdquo; That message has now reached some of the world&rsquo;s most powerful platforms, crystallised in her TEDx talk and the concept of re-oceaning &ndash; a call to reconnect humanity with the sea through story, science and sound. &ldquo;As part of the process of healing our relationship with the planet, we have to be mindful that the ocean is not a stranger,&rdquo; she states. &ldquo;It is our origin, and to reconnect with the ocean is to reconnect with ourselves.&rdquo;
Following the TEDx event, Francavilla and her MusicForTheSea NGO &ndash; in collaboration with marine scientists and underwater acoustic researchers from the INMAR Institute of Marine Research (University of C&aacute;diz) and the Ocean World of Sound (Canc&uacute;n, Mexico), with support from the Love The Mediterranean sailboat &ndash; began deploying hydrophones off Ibiza&rsquo;s coast. The devices were positioned in two locations: one in a pristine marine park near Formentera, where the Posidonia oceanica meadows remain vibrant and healthy, and another in Talamanca, where heavy boat traffic and anchoring have severely degraded the ecosystem. &ldquo;The idea was to capture the difference between a healthy marine soundscape and a damaged one,&rdquo; she explains. &ldquo;Because sound tells you everything. It tells you who&rsquo;s living there, how they&rsquo;re behaving, and if they&rsquo;re stressed. Sound doesn&rsquo;t lie.&rdquo;

&ldquo;The ocean is not silent,&rdquo; she reminds us. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s singing. And we just have to remember how to listen.&rdquo;

Photography by Chiara Mirelli.

The project, supported by the Posidonia Surveillance Team of IBANAT, the Balearic Government&rsquo;s environmental agency, marks the beginning of a large-scale acoustic study into the Mediterranean marine environment. The aim is to use the recordings for scientific modelling and also for public engagement. &ldquo;We will analyse these recordings to support marine conservation,&rdquo; Francavilla says, &ldquo;but we&rsquo;ll also turn them into immersive, emotional musical experiences. Because when people feel the ocean, they care for it.&rdquo;
The approach has gained international recognition. In June 2025, &ldquo;Posidonia Soundscapes&rdquo; was officially endorsed as part of the UN Ocean Decade &ndash; a global effort, coordinated by UNESCO, to restore and protect the world&rsquo;s oceans by 2030. At the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, Francavilla&rsquo;s project featured as an official side event. Entitled TIDAL SHIFTS, and presented by MusicForTheSea in collaboration with PangeaSeed, Peace Boat US and nearly 30 other ocean advocacy partners worldwide, the programme unfolded across a contemporary gallery with performance, art installations, sound baths and panel discussions. &ldquo;It was a moment of real connection,&rdquo; Francavilla reflects. &ldquo;Activists, artists, scientists and NGOs all came together, united by one goal &ndash; to give the ocean a voice.&rdquo;
Building on this momentum, Francavilla released the first official offering on her MusicForTheSea imprint on World Ocean Day: the &ldquo;Re-Oceaning&rdquo; EP, a deep-listening ambient work blending hydrophone recordings with modular synth textures. The EP debuted inside a dedicated sound installation in the UN pavilion, playing on rotation throughout the week. Francavilla describes it as &ldquo;a beautiful full circle moment,&rdquo; where music created from the ocean was returned to a space devoted to protecting it.

While her work reaches global audiences, Francavilla&rsquo;s mission is inherently local. &ldquo;This island is a microcosm of everything beautiful and everything fragile,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;We have crystalline waters filtered by ancient seagrass forests, but we also have massive pressure from tourism, noise and pollution. We can&rsquo;t keep pretending Ibiza is invincible.&rdquo;
At her studio, nestled deep in the countryside, Francavilla hosts visiting artists and scientists. She takes them out on boats, guides meditative underwater listening sessions, and encourages them to create music inspired by the island&rsquo;s ecosystem. Acclaimed ambient artists such as Suzanne Ciani, Rafael Anton Irisarri and Grand River have already joined the movement, contributing to a full-length compilation due in 2026.
The seeds of this journey were planted quietly, without a plan. &ldquo;It started beside the sea, with a field recorder and an open heart,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;No background in marine science, just a moment of listening &ndash; and maybe that&rsquo;s all it takes. We don&rsquo;t need to be scientists, we just need to care.&rdquo;
To mark World Ocean Day, she returned to the beach where she first recorded the sea. There, as Posidonia brushed her ankles and the sun began to dip, she played a small, spontaneous set. Whale calls looped through the speakers in low-frequency pulses. &ldquo;The ocean is not silent,&rdquo; she reminds us. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s singing. And we just have to remember how to listen.&rdquo;

Re-oceaning: Tuning Into The Sea

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