The Metra "Rock Island" line, South Side of Chicago to Downtown, around 35th Street. May 2013

Metra "Rock Island" train

Train passing through Carkeek Park on Seattle's North Shore. 

Train passing at Carkeek Park, Seattle, WA. Summer 2013

A binaural recording made in the backyard of a house in Beverly, a neighborhood on the far south side of Chicago, IL. May 2013. In the back ground can be heard the Metra commuter train horn. 

Beverly Binaural

Recorded under the overpass of a freeway system in Austin Texas. The "thumps" are from cars going over the expansion joints in the freeway. August 2012

Austin Overpass

Recordings made in the San Diego Miramar Reservoir.  These were captured at various locations around the perimeter, in shallow(ish) water at the shore. 
Aquabeat Hydrophone
Zoom H4 and H1 recorders
Setptember 18, 2022

LM 3

LM 2

LM 1

I was bored. So I froze some contact mics and recorded the ice melting.

Contact Mic in Melting Ice

Rain from inside bag of dirt

Unexpected surprise of recording sidewalk chalk with hydrophone in bucket of water.

Hydro Chalk Excerpt

Another sonic perspective from within a random tube

Recording from within a tube 1

Liberty Station Plane2

Liberty Station Plane1

Rock Island Train

Motnrose Harbor Dock

CTA Truss

Excerpt of a recording using a VLF antenna and a Fox Hole Radio (Crystal Radio)

FH Excerpt 2

Geofon Fan

Geofon Vent 3

Using my LOM Elektrouši electro-magnetic-coil microphones on my microwave oven.

Mag Coil Microwave

hydrophones dunked into Montrose Harbor off a pier in Chicago

Hydro Montrose Harbor

San Diego got some good rain a bit ago. Here is what it sounded like from under a puddle and other places

Rain From The Front Porch

Mics In A Bin With Rain

Mic In Puddle During Rain

A small collection of field recordings made with magnetic coil microphones. Specifically the LOM Elektrouši  mics. 
These are basically made from coils of magnetic wire connected to unbalanced leads. When the mic is inserted into a magnetic field, it induces a current through the leads picking up the fluctuating patterns within the field.

Placing the mics by the speakers while my kid plays minecraft, or something...

Making Tesla owners very uncomfortable as I record their cars as well as the chargers

Soldering Iron heating up, cooling down, and holding temp.

Rainy day here in San Diego. Here are a couple rain recordings that I think have interesting textures to them.

Rain Studio Vent

Garage Door Rain

Track four from my last album: "Along These Lines"

04 Bypass

Steve Barsotti is a sound artist and educator who lives in San Diego. He has ventured into various approaches to art making including photography, printmaking, performance, invented instruments, improvisation, object recording, location recording, phonography, electro-acoustic-pull-strange-sounds-from-everyday-objects, and there is sure to be more. The common thread has always been a close examination of easily bypassed details; image from angles that you would not normally see, sounds that can only be heard through contact mics and amplification, sonic qualities of materials that are used in everyday life. 

He was a member of the Seattle Phonographers Union, a field recording wielding group of improvisers. The Union is described as " moving beyond habitual experience of sound and uncover what is foreign in the familiar and familiar about the foreign; to explore what we hear and relearn what we know" They have been performing together for 20 years. (www.seapho.org)

Steve Barsotti

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