The Fountain
The Fountainis a layered, often beautiful score from composer Clint Mansell. The disc seamlessly moves from ambient drones to plaintive piano music to slowly percolating minimalist stuff to hugely swelling strings. Mansell, who's collaborated with director Aronofsky before, uses almost anything from the minor-key sonic palette available to him, with the exception of the mopey yuppie-folk and instantly dated electronica so often thrown into films. Mansell's own group, the superlative Kronos Quartet, is joined by Scottish noise act Mogwai. The use of such an arty, detuned guitar rock band as Mogwai in a big time movie soundtrack might seem weird, though of course Explosions in the Sky's work onFriday Night Lightswas a harbinger. It's too soon to tell if this is an outright classic of soundtrack music in the realm of Goblin'sSuspiria,John Carpenter'sEscape from New York, or Popol Vuh'sAguirre. But it is definitely a subtle, melancholic work you'll want to revisit often.--Mike McGonigal