Unspoilt By Progress: A Conversation With Black Swan Composer Clint Mansell

Since the demise of Pop Will Eat Itself in 1996, Clint Mansell has been quietly making a name for himself as one of modern cinema's most expressive and inventive soundtrack composers. His work with director Darren Aronofsky can be heard in Pi, Requiem For a Dream, The Wrestler and most recently Black Swan, films that restore the parity between what cinemagoers see, and what they hear.
Mansell's expansive compositions have succeeded in their own right. The music for Requiem For a Dream was adapted for a live collaboration with the Kronos Quartet, and in 2009 he brought the Sonus Quartet to London's Union Chapel. The soundtrack to Black Swan builds on Swan Lake, but sadly, the inclusion of Tchaikovsky's work makes Mansell's ineligible for any awards.
Garrulous yet slowly-spoken, he's as interested in exploring his own methods as he is in taking on new work for short films or computer game soundtracks. And despite time spent living in New Orleans, New York and Los Angeles his accent remains one hundred percent Stourbridge, the Dudley lilt making the word 'heart' sound precisely like 'art'...

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Kiran Acharya @'The Quietus'