Clint Mansell

Clint Mansell

Clinton Darryl "Clint" Mansell, (born 7 January 1963) is an English musician, composer, and former lead singer and guitarist of the band Pop Will Eat Itself.

After the disbanding of PWEI in 1996, Mansell was introduced to film scoring when his friend, director Darren Aronofsky, hired him to score his debut film, π. Mansell then wrote the score for the next Aronofsky film, Requiem for a Dream, and its main composition "Lux Aeterna" has become extremely popular, appearing in a wide variety of advertisements and film trailers.

Mansell's composition for The Fountain was nominated for Best Original Score at the 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards. His other notable film scores include Moon, Smokin' Aces and The Wrestler.

Career

Pop career

Mansell was the lead singer and guitarist of the British band Pop Will Eat Itself. He also performed back-up vocals on the 1999 album The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails.

Soundtrack composer

Mansell's score for π was followed up by his score for Aronofsky's next film, Requiem for a Dream, which became a cult hit.

Other notable achievements include the theme for the film The Hole, the music for the pilot episode of CSI: NY, and the score for Aronofsky's later films The Fountain, which was nominated for Best Original Score in the 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards, and The Wrestler. Mansell has also contributed the score to HBO's Voyeur. The song was also used as the base theme for the song "Throw It Up" by Lil Jon. His most recent work has been on the soundtrack for Black Swan in 2010.

Mansell has garnered a cult following for his soundtrack work, so much that Smokin' Aces director Joe Carnahan admits to receiving "blatant threats" when the soundtrack was released without much of Mansell's score for the film.

Film trailers

The trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers contained a rearranged version of the track "Lux Aeterna", using a full orchestra and choir. The piece, named "Requiem for a Tower", was recorded specially for the trailer. The orchestration was arranged by Simone Benyacar, Dan Nielsen, and Veigar Margeirsson.

"Lux Aeterna" has since become popular, with both the original and the "Requiem for a Tower" version having appeared in a wide variety of advertisements and trailers, including the trailer for the Red Sox–Yankees games in the 2007 Major League Baseball season, and trailers for the films Zathura, The Da Vinci Code, Sunshine, Babylon A.D. and the TV series Lost and Top Gear. It was also used on Sky Sports News and as the theme for Soccer Saturday from 2007-2009. In 2006, the theme was used in EuroSport LIVE trailers. The theme was also used by America's Got Talent as an introduction of the judges before being changed slightly. The new variant is now a regular piece on the show.

The piece "Death Is the Road to Awe" from the score for The Fountain was featured in a trailer for the 2007 film I Am Legend, and the trailer for the film The Mist, as well as the trailer for the film Frost/Nixon, and toward the end of 2007 The Final Cut trailer for Blade Runner.

He has also composed the music for the mini-series The Fronts of War, in which the main song is Requiem for a dream.

Scoring credits

• Pi, 1998
• Requiem for a Dream, 2000
• World Traveler, 2001
• The Hole, 2001
• Knockaround Guys, 2001
• Abandon, 2002
• Murder by Numbers, 2002
• Sonny, 2002
• The Hire: Ticker, 2002
• 11:14, 2003
• Suspect Zero, 2004
• Sahara, 2005
• Doom, 2005
• The Fountain, 2006
• Trust the Man, 2006
• Smokin' Aces, 2006
• Wind Chill, 2007
• In The Wall, 2007
• Definitely, Maybe, 2008
• The Wrestler, 2008
• Blood: The Last Vampire, 2009
• Moon, 2009
• L'affaire Farewell, 2009
• The Rebound, 2010
• Black Swan, 2010
• Faster, 2010
• The Fronts of War, 2011

External links

• Clint Mansell at IMDb
• Mansell at Yahoo Movies
• Mansell at Rotten Tomatoes
• Official website
• Interview focusing on Pop Will Eat Itself
• The Wrestler Score review
• Two and a Half Questions with Clint Mansell on Headphone Commute (2009)