To capture the experience of Chernobyl, the composer recorded sounds at a power plant in Lithuania.

Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir nabbed her first Emmy for the haunting score to HBO limited series Chernobyl on Sunday night at the 2019 Creative Arts Emmys. She also recently scored Todd Phillips' Joker, which last weekend won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

The HBO series chronicles the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster and its aftermath, and to capture the experience of Chernobyl, the composer actually recorded sounds at a power plant in Lithuania, where much of the filming took place.

"There weren’t any traditional instruments used. I made instruments out of these sounds that I found," Guðnadóttir explained in a recent episode of The Hollywood Reporter podcast Behind the Screen. "I spend a lot of time recording room tones, the hums ... My favorite solo 'instrument' of the score was a door leading to the engine room next to the pump room that had a symphony of sounds."

Guðnadóttir beat out composers for Escape at Dannemora, Good Omens, True Detective and When They See Us.

The 2019 Creative Arts Emmy Awards took place over two nights (Sept. 14 and 15) at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles and will air on FXX on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, ahead of the Primetime Emmy Awards telecast on Fox on Sunday, Sept. 22 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.