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Clint Mansell & Kronos Quartet
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Clint Mansell & Kronos Quartet · Clint Mansell was born in Coventry in 1963. As a child he became hooked on the guitar through David Bowie and later the Ramones. At nineteen he joined the band that would become Pop Will Eat Itself. From 1986 to 1996 he was its singer, guitarist and one of its main writers. The group began as grebo and alt-rock, but increasingly turned to sampling and electronics, with influences from hip-hop and industrial.
Music and breakthrough
After the band broke up Mansell moved to New York and later to New Orleans, where Trent Reznor helped him and introduced him to Pro Tools. In New York he met the director Darren Aronofsky. Together they made Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, Black Swan and Noah. Mansell cannot read music and builds his film music the way rock music is built: with drums, bass, guitar and melody lines, with an orchestrator to help.
Influence
The best-known piece is Lux Aeterna from Requiem for a Dream from 2000. The Kronos Quartet recorded it for the soundtrack. The piece consists of a short repeated figure that slowly swells, and became famous above all through the reworked version Requiem for a Tower, which was heard in the trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Since then the music has turned up in countless trailers, commercials and television programmes. Mansell later also wrote for Moon and for the films of Ben Wheatley.
Listening
Lux Aeterna · Clint Mansell & Kronos Quartet, 2000
Death Is the Road to Awe · Clint Mansell & Kronos Quartet, 2006