Punk pioneer Patti Smith has teamed with English musician Clint Mansell and San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet to create the mesmerizing track “Mercy Is,” for the upcoming soundtrack to Darren Aronofsky’s Noah.
Apparently Smith, who firmly established herself in the punk rock trenches of the 70s with her raw and heavily influential masterpiece Horses, had much to do with her involvement in the soundtrack. As “Mercy Is” was being introduced on the radio show hosted by BBC DJ Mary Anne Hobbs this week, Hobbs relayed the following:
Patti Smith asked Darren herself if she could write the lullaby that was referenced in the script and ‘Mercy Is’ was the result.
NME has provided the following quote from Mansell, which Hobbs also mentions in her show:
My orchestrator Matt Dunkley and I arranged the music which we roughly laid out alongside Patti’s demo, and then we had Kronos and Patti play together in the studio, so it was all done in quite an old school way. This process allowed Patti and Kronos to really express themselves and really find their performance.
The collaboration results in an absolutely stunning piece of music that very much echoes the sounds of Smith, Mansell and Kronos Quartet, the latter two infamously known for their composition and performing of the soundtrack for Requiem for a Dream. To hear “Mercy Is,” go to the 2:55:00 mark of this broadcast.
For more on the artists involved, read about the recent collaboration between Kronos Quartet and Bryce Dessner here, as well as Smith’s involvement last week at the Tibet House Benefit Concert, alongside Iggy Pop, New Order and many more.
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