Sounds of electricity

Capturing the isolated sounds of electric activity has fascinated me since I first experimented with primitive, custom built coil microphones which I built for that purpose in 2008.

This is the sound of a sudden 1,000,000 volt discharge, recorded with regular microphones:

A sound example of a high voltage applied to a massive sheet of glass:

Even more interesting sound recordings are possible with custom microphones that capture the electromagnetic field of electricity itself, rather than picking up air vibrations. Using such mics, we can listen to the insides of devices and electric machines that are normally inaudible to our ears. Below is a quick montage of recordings from various devices, a power station, a server room and other electromagnetic fields.