Why is it that British people always seem to do things better? I know that isn’t a universal truth, but the minute you start to think it, it seems to be true. Other than tired clichéd jokes about teeth and cuisine, the UK can seem to be able to take everything we do and turn it up a notch or three. Music is definitely a place where this perceived truth can come in to sharp focus. British songwriters and composers seem to be able to generate tunes that crank my chain something fierce, and today’s Tech School subject is no exception – in fact, he is one of the bars by which to measure others.

Born in 1963 in Coventry, England, Clint Mansell rose to fame first as the lead singer and guitarist of British industrial outfit Pop Will Eat Itself. He currently works exclusively as a film score composer, with his most renowned work being collaborations with writer/director Darren Aronofsky.

Clint’s musical beginnings were in a band called From Eden, a group that contained  members of what would eventually become PWEI, namely Adam Mole and Graham Crabb. When From Eden broke up, the new group added Richard March, and released a single under the name Wild and Wandering, but would eventually name themselves from a quote in NME magazine: Pop Will Eat Itself.

Clint and PWEI would release a great deal of music under several different labels, finally seeing their greatest success on Trent Reznor’s nothing imprint with the 1994 album Dos Dedos Mis Amigos. The band imploded quickly after, officially breaking up in 1996. Their music began as an experiment combining pop, rock, funk, and rap, long before the rap-rock craze of the early 2000s, and eventually became something much bigger. Their final album was certainly a testament to creative growth, with songs touching on anti-immigration sentiment in the UK, barbs at the royal family, culminating in visions of a apathy- and ignorance-fueled apocalypse.

After the breakup, Mansell was free to pursue other musical interests. He moved to the U.S. after the breakup, and began working with Trent Reznor, doing remixes of Nine Inch Nails tracks, as well as appearing on NIN release The Fragile. Mansell also began a collaboration with writer and director Darren Aronofsky, scoring his first major motion picture, Pi. Clint’s work appeared on a soundtrack that commanded the vast majority of the film’s budget, including artists like Banco de Gaia, Aphex Twin, Orbital, and Roni Size. The movie was a massive success, considering its shoestring budget and lack of recognizable stars, and Clint’s haunting theme song and score garnered a great deal of attention.

The song most people have come to associate with both Mansell and Aronofsky would be the theme to their second collaboration, Requiem for a Dream. The theme song, entitled Lux Aeterna (or Eternal Light), became the focus of a number of remixes, many used in other films’ trailers, such as Zathura, The Da Vinci Code, and the The Two Towers. The film’s music, performed by Clint and the Kronos Quartet, would also inspire a remix album, including reworks of the score by Paul Oakenfold, Josh Wink, Delirium, and others.

Clint’s newest work appears on the score of Aronofsky’s upcoming third film, The Fountain, as story about 16th century spain, 21st century America, and 26th century space.

On a personal note, Clint’s music just works on me. Seemingly as at home with a drum machine as with an orchestra, his tracks all seem to have a slightly melancholic edge, but maintain an air of mystery, and a feel of the epic. It’s no wonder that he an Aronofsky work together, as they both manipulate these emotions with a great deal of skill.