Composer Clint Mansell made his impact as a soundtrack composer known with his production of the Pi soundtrack. On that disc, the former vocalist for UK group Pop Will Eat Itself melded an abstract 20th-century classical sensibility to electronica with great (and eerie) results. On Requiem for a Dream--the follow-up film from Pi director Darren Aronofsky--Mansell repeats his magic. Here, teamed with the Kronos Quartet--one of the world's foremost (and most progressive) string quartets--Mansell fuses big-beat, ambient, and driving chamber music. The result is a mesmerizing aural complement to an already mesmerizing film. Dark, unpredictable, and thoroughly engrossing. --Jason Verlinde
