Two-time Grammy Award-winning composer Sam Slater crafts an immersive sonic world in 2000 Meters to Andriivka, where he joins the Oscar-winning team behind last year’s Best Documentary, 20 Days in Mariupol. Premiering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, filmmaker and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Mstyslav Chernov’s hard-hitting sophomore film chronicles the war in Ukraine as Ukrainian soldiers attempt to liberate a strategic village from Russian forces. Slater’s restrained but powerful score transcends traditional music, blurring the lines between sound design and composition. To achieve this, he utilizes a variety of handmade instruments and processed field recordings that contribute to the chaotic soundscape. The result is a sonic embodiment of the homegrown, yet unstoppable spirit of the Ukrainian military.

2000 Meters to Andriivka documents the toll of the Russia-Ukraine war from a personal and devastating vantage point. Weaving together original footage, intensive bodycam video, and powerful moments of reflection, 2000 Meters to Andriivka offers an intimate glimpse into the heads and hearts of those on the frontlines. Chernov captures soldiers’ visceral realization in stark detail as they advance farther through their destroyed homeland, as they struggle with knowing if this war will ever end. Using such strong visuals, the quiet yet powerfully affecting ten-track album complements the frontline documentary footage with immersive spatial sound design.

EXCLUSIVE: Cinemacy is proud to debut ‘Will This War Go On Forever’ from 2000 Meters to Andriivka, below:

Says Slater of the album, “The score for Mstylsav Chernov’s new documentary 2000 Meters to Andriivk demanded an energy-driven score — blunt, visceral, and aligned with its predominantly first-person perspective. Built around a dry funereal drum feeding back into itself, the score is volatile and relentless. Jakob Vasak’s snarling Kobophon and Kai Whitson’s spectral walkie-talkie textures hover anxiously above it. Voices and strings emerge warped and restless until the closing Mysteria ritual, where Hildur Guðnadóttir, Simon Goff, and Maria W Horn briefly resolve into mournful harmony, grounding us in grief as fallen soldiers’ names are summoned into the air.”

About Sam Slater

Sam Slater is a composer and producer working at the intersection of experimental music, sound design, and contemporary storytelling. His work has shaped critically acclaimed projects including Joker, Chernobyl, and Battlefield 2042. Accolades include the Icelandic Music Award for Producer of the Year, the SCL Award for Battlefield 2042, and the Filmfare Award for Best Original Soundtrack for Netflix’s The Railway Men.

He also co-leads OSMIUM, an improvisational collaboration with Hildur Guðnadóttir, James Ginzburg, and Rully Shabara. The project, whose debut album was released in June 2025, employs augmented, custom-made robotic and electro-mechanical instruments that fuse industrial textures, ritualistic density, and physical performance. The result is a creation of unique sounds that resist categorization. Based in Berlin, Slater continues to develop work that challenges fixed categories, composing for orchestras, machines, field recordings, and spatial systems.

Lakeshore Records is releasing ‘2000 Meters to Andriivka (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)’ on digital platforms this Friday. You can listen and pre-order the vinyl here.