Clinton Darryl Mansell (; born 7 November 1963) is an English musician, Singing, and composer. He served as the lead vocalist of alt-rock band Pop Will Eat Itself. After the band's dissolution, Mansell moved to the United States and embarked on a career as a film score composer.
Mansell partnered with American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky and composed the scores for his films Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, Black Swan, and Noah. Mansell is best known for the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack, particularly the film's composition "Lux Aeterna" and a re-orchestrated version titled "Requiem for a Tower" that was created for trailer, both of which have been featured in multiple advertisements, films, film trailers, video games and other media.
He provided the scores for the Ben Wheatley films High-Rise, Happy New Year, Colin Burstead, Rebecca, and In the Earth. Other films featuring Mansell's scores include Sahara, Moon and Stoker. He has also composed music for television and video games.
Mansell was nominated for a Golden Globe for his work on The Fountain, and was nominated for multiple Grammy Awards for his work on Black Swan.
Inspired by David Bowie's performance of "Starman" on the television series Top of the Pops, he started to play guitar at the age of nine. His foray into Punk rock-inspired music was influenced by the Ramones. In 2014 he told Beat Magazine "I heard the Ramones and punk rock changed my life." While living in Stourbridge, Mansell played in rock bands as a youth, and at 19 years of age he joined the band that became Pop Will Eat Itself.
Following PWEI's break-up in 1996, Mansell moved to New York, where he hoped to start a solo career, but struggled creatively. He was invited by Reznor to move to an apartment in New Orleans owned by Reznor, where Mansell lived for three years, prior to settling in Los Angeles. It was there that Reznor Mentorship Mansell and introduced him to Pro Tools. Mansell also performed backing vocals on Nine Inch Nails' 1999 album The Fragile.
Mansell reunited with PWEI in 2005 for their "Reformation" tour, which included performances in Nottingham, Birmingham and London.
Aronofsky suggested that Mansell write the opening title piece for Pi, Aronofsky's feature film directorial debut. Aronofsky had intended to use pre-existing electronic music in the rest of the film, but due to a lack of funds, he found it difficult to acquire the rights to much of the music that interested him and Mansell was hired to provide music for the entire film. Mansell's score for the film won him the City of Birmingham award at the Birmingham Film Festival in 2000.
Mansell wrote the score for Aronofsky's next film, Requiem for a Dream, which became a cult following hit. The film's primary composition "Lux Aeterna" became a favorite in its own right. A re-orchestrated version of the song, titled "Requiem for a Tower", was arranged by composers Simone Benyacar, Dan Nielsen and Veigar Margeirsson for the film trailer of .
Both "Lux Aeterna" and "Requiem for a Tower" have been used in multiple forms of media, including the film trailers for The Da Vinci Code, I Am Legend, Sunshine and Babylon A.D.; trailers for the video games Assassin's Creed and ; advertising campaigns for such products as Canon PowerShot cameras, Molson Canadian beer; and on television such as in the series America's Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance as well as a promo spot the series Flash Forward.
In 2006, Mansell provided the score for the film Smokin' Aces and he received a BMI Film & TV Award for his work on the film Sahara that same year. The following year, his score for the Aronofsky film The Fountain was awarded Best Original Film Score of the Year and the Public Choice Award at the 7th World Soundtrack Awards. The Fountains score was also nominated for Best Score in a Motion Picture at the 2007 Golden Globe Awards.
Mansell's score for Aronofsky's Black Swan garnered him multiple nominations and awards. He was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media as well as Best Original Soundtrack (for Black Swan), and Soundtrack Composer of the Year (for Black Swan, Last Night and Faster) at the 11th World Soundtrack Awards. The score was deemed ineligible for the Academy Award for Best Original Score due to its use of Tchaikovsky's original music from Swan Lake.
Mansell created the film score for Moon, feature film directorial debut. Mansell won Best Technical Achievement at the British Independent Film Awards for Moons score. In 2011 Mansell was hired to provide the score for The Iron Lady, but he was later replaced by composer Thomas Newman. Nevertheless, Mansell's music from the film Moon was used in the film's trailer and was also used in the 2012 trailer of the computer game .
Mansell provided the scores for the films Stoker (also featuring music by Philip Glass) and Filth, which were both released in 2013.
Filmmaker Ben Wheatley, who was a fan of Mansell's music for the films Requiem for a Dream and Moon, approached Mansell about providing the score for his 2015 film High-Rise. Mansell also provided the music for Wheatley's subsequent works Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (2018) and Rebecca (2020) and In the Earth (2021).
Mansell's film scores have been sampled by such musical artists as Lil Jon, ASAP Rocky, Bastille and Paul Oakenfold.
Having no formal training in musical notation, Mansell constructs his film scores using the method he employs for writing rock music — drums, bass, guitar and vocal lines — in addition to employing an orchestrator. Some of his influences include Philip Glass, Trevor Jones, David Holmes, and bands such as Death in Vegas, Mogwai and Unkle.
Career
Alt-rock career
Film score career
Symphonic performances
Publishing deal
Awards and nominations
2000 Birmingham Film and Television Festival City of Birmingham Award Pi 2006 BMI Film & TV Awards Film Music award Sahara Critics' Choice Movie Awards Best Score The Fountain 2007 Golden Globe Best Original Score The Fountain World Soundtrack Award Best Original Film Score The Fountain 2009 British Independent Film Awards Best Technical Achievement Moon 2010 Chicago Film Critics Association Award Best Original Score Black Swan Critics' Choice Movie Awards Best Score Black Swan Satellite Awards Best Original Score Black Swan 2011 World Soundtrack Award Best Original Score of the Year Black Swan World Soundtrack Award Soundtrack Composer of the Year Black Swan, Last Night and Faster BMI Film & TV Awards Film Music award Black Swan 2012 Grammy Award Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media Black Swan 2014 Hollywood Music in Media Awards Best Original Score in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film Noah 2017 Annie Awards Outstanding Achievement for Music in a Feature Production Loving Vincent
Discography
with Pop Will Eat Itself
Live albums
Film scores and soundtracks
Film
1998 Pi Darren Aronofsky Protozoa Pictures 2000 Requiem for a Dream 2001 World Traveler Bart Freundlich The Hole Nick Hamm Knockaround Guys Rain Katherine Lindberg 2002 Abandon Stephen Gaghan Murder by Numbers Barbet Schroeder Warner Bros. Pictures
Castle Rock Entertainment Sonny Nicolas Cage 2003 Greg Marcks 2004 Suspect Zero E. Elias Merhige 2005 Sahara Breck Eisner BMI Film Music Award Doom Andrzej Bartkowiak 2006 The Fountain Darren Aronofsky
Trust the Man Bart Freundlich Fox Searchlight Pictures Smokin' Aces Joe Carnahan 2007 Wind Chill Gregory Jacobs 2008 Definitely, Maybe Adam Brooks The Wrestler Darren Aronofsky Dream from Leaving wonderwheel, llc 2009 Chris Nahon Moon Duncan Jones Nominated: British Independent Film Award for Best Technical Achievement Farewell Christian Carion The Rebound Bart Freundlich 2010 Darren Aronofsky
Last Night Massy Tadjedin Nominated: World Soundtrack Award for Soundtrack Composer of the Year (with Black Swan & Faster) Faster George Tillman, Jr. Nominated: World Soundtrack Award for Soundtrack Composer of the Year (with Black Swan & Last Night) 2013 Stoker Park Chan-wook Filth Jon S. Baird 2014 Noah Darren Aronofsky Nominated: Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Score in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film 2015 Man Down Dito Montiel High-Rise Ben Wheatley 2017 Ghost in the Shell Rupert Sanders Composed with Lorne Balfe Loving Vincent
2018 Mute Duncan Jones Happy New Year, Colin Burstead Ben Wheatley Out of Blue Carol Morley 2020 Rebecca Ben Wheatley 2021 In the Earth She Will Charlotte Colbert Vertigo Releasing 2023 Sharper Benjamin Caron 2024 Love Lies Bleeding Rose Glass
Television
2004 Ann Donahue Episode: "MIA/NYC NonStop" 2011 United Chris Chibnall Television film 2016 Black Mirror Charlie Brooker Episode: San Junipero 2018–2023 Titans Greg Walker 2019–2023 Doom Patrol Jeremy Carver 2022–present Peacemaker James Gunn
| rowspan="2" Composed with Kevin Kiner
2024–present Creature Commandos Dean Lorey
Video games
2012 Mass Effect 3 Casey Hudson Composed with Sascha Dikiciyan, Sam Hulick, Christopher Lennertz & Cris Velasco
Short films
2002 Joe Carnahan BMW films 2006 The Big Forever 2007 In the Wall Mike Williamson The Healing Syndrome Michael Sheehan High Tyde Productions My Mother Elaine Wickham Medb Films 2009 The Odds Paloma Baeza Blue Knight Mark Anthony Man of Mistery Films 2010 Fragged Devon Avery 2014 A Rose Reborn Park Chan-wook 2015 Gaslighting Elaine Wickham Deathly Mike Williamson
External links
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