Biography

Two-time Grammy Award-winning composer, sound designer and music producer Sam Slater is known for his roles as both score producer and musical sound designer for Joker and Chernobyl. In addition to his two Grammy Award wins for Joker and Chernobyl, he has also won an Icelandic Music Award as "Producer of the Year" and a MASA Award for 'Best Sound Design in Television Program'.

As a composer, in 2020 he scored Guerilla, a feature film about freedom fighters in Myanmar directed by Anyrin Bowyn, as well as The River Between Us, a documentary feature on uncontacted Peruvian tribes. He also composed the score for I Am Not A Monster, a BBC / PBS Podcast telling the story of an American mother who brought her son to live in war-torn Syria. The podcast won several awards and was noted for its complex and weighty sound world.

Slater began producing records in his teens and studied Experimental Composition at Leeds University before moving to Germany to begin his professional career. He got his start working as Johann Johannsson's principal musical sound designer and creative engineer, collaborating on several projects.

He frequently collaborates with Academy Award- winning composer Hildur Gudnadóttir and in 2019, he engineered a live touring performance of the Chernobyl score for a bespoke, immersive sound system inside an abandoned telephone factory in Krakow, Poland. The show will continue to tour worldwide in 2022.

Additionally, he released a solo record on Iceland's acclaimed Bedroom Community and produced, recorded, and mixed a multitude of records, including work from composers Colin Stetson, Ben Frost, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Yair Glotman and Mica Levi. His follow up solo album will be released in 2022 on Bedroom Community.

Slater originally hails from Southwest England and has been based in Berlin, Germany since 2013.
- IMDb mini biography by: White Bear PR

Sam Slater is a British composer, sound designer, and record producer whose work bridges contemporary classical composition, experimental electronics, and sound for screen. Based in Berlin, Slater studied Experimental Composition at Leeds University before moving to Germany, where he collaborated extensively with the late Jóhann Jóhannsson.

He has twice won Grammy Awards for his role as score producer and musical sound designer on Oscar winning Joker and Emmy winning Chernobyl, and has worked extensively with Hildur Guðnadóttir, co-composing the soundtrack to Battlefield 2042. That project earned him the Icelandic Music Award for Producer of the Year and the Society of Composers & Lyricists Award for Outstanding Original Score for Interactive Media.

Slater’s own work is characterized by use of unconventional sound sources and the design of new instruments, often blurring the boundary between composition and sonic engineering. He has constructed custom electroacoustic devices, altered acoustic instruments for new tonal possibilities, and used extended recording techniques to capture unusual resonance, distortion, and texture. These methods inform both his solo releases-Wrong Airport Ghost (2018), I Do Not Wish To Be Known As A Vandal (2022) and most recently Lunng (2026) -and collaborative works.

In 2022, Slater formed Osmium, a collaborative experimental ensemble with Guðnadóttir, James Ginzburg, and Rully Shabara. Known for its use of bespoke electroacoustic instruments and extended vocal and percussive techniques, Osmium merges heavy, metallic sonics with intricate rhythmic structures and immersive live performance.

In 2024, Slater composed the score for 2000 Meters to Andriivka, a documentary by Mstyslav Chernov chronicling the war in Ukraine. The film premiered at Sundance in January 2025, where Chernov received the Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary. Slater’s restrained but impactful score deepened the film’s emotional resonance.

In 2025, he founded Mt. Brings Death with American guitarist Mason Lindahl, a label for experimental and cross-media projects. New solo and collaborative releases are scheduled for later this year.
- IMDb mini biography by: Sam Slater