Chernobyl (soundtrack)
Soundtrack built from recordings inside a nuclear power plant.
The soundtrack for the miniseries Chernobyl was composed by Hildur Guðnadóttir, who recorded sounds inside a real nuclear plant to build the score. The album, containing thirteen tracks, came out on May 31, 2019, through Deutsche Grammophon and WaterTower Music. A vinyl version followed on September 6, 2019, via Decca Records.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- Hildur Guðnadóttir
- Released
- 31 May 2019
- Recorded
- August 2018 – March 2019
- Genre
- Dark ambient
- Label
- Deutsche Grammophon
- Decca
- WaterTower Music
- Producer
- Hildur Guðnadóttir
- Chris Watson
- Owen Roberts
- Anusch Alimirzaie
- Christian Badzura
Facts from the source article.
Track listing
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Door | 2:43 |
| 2 | Bridge of Death | 4:44 |
| 3 | Turbine Hall | 2:36 |
| 4 | Vichnaya Pamyat (performed by Homin Lviv Municipal Choir) | 4:07 |
| 5 | Pump Room | 3:43 |
| 6 | Clean Up | 1:41 |
| 7 | Dealing with Destruction | 1:54 |
| 8 | Waiting for the Engineer | 1:31 |
| 9 | Gallery | 2:23 |
| 10 | 12 Hours Before | 2:31 |
| 11 | Corridors | 3:13 |
| 12 | Liður (Chernobyl Version) | 2:48 |
| 13 | Evacuation | 4:43 |
Track listing from the source article.
Development
In August 2018, while the series was being filmed, composer Hildur Guðnadóttir and score producer Chris Watson traveled to Lithuania’s Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, the primary filming location, to capture dark ambient sounds. They wore hazmat suits for safety inside the facility. Guðnadóttir’s goal was to let the power plant and its radiation become a voice, capturing the sensation of what people might have felt as they tried to manage the catastrophe, which she described as a sound of “creeping death.” Every sound in the score came directly from those on-site recordings. Rather than using instruments or pre-recorded material, she focused on observing the environment so listeners could experience what it’s like to be inside a power plant. She recorded reactor halls, hallways, turbine saws, machinery hums, walls, and the engine room door, then built the compositions from those sounds. She applied reverb and her own recordings to make it seem as though the sounds were singing within the plant’s rooms, not in a studio. Instead of composing a single theme, she crafted a unique soundscape for each episode. The entire composition process took over seven months.
Reception
Critics were divided on the Chernobyl soundtrack. Billboard's Ellen Emmerentze Jervell noted its disturbing, melancholic quality, built on sound design rather than traditional orchestration. Horror DNA's Richie Corelli deemed it a smart, effective album and one of 2019's best, highlighting its eerie, anxiety-inducing tension, bombastic crescendos, and metallic tones. Filmmakers Academy called it a triumph of innovation whose influence would outlast any half-life. Conversely, Jonathan Broxton dismissed the music as an auditory nightmare.
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