Scores like The Red Canvas by newcomer composer James Peterson are all too rare. Accompanying a little-known film about underground mixed martial arts, Peterson's score is filled with panache and reckless sophistication, with a thoroughly symphonic construction which impresses with its depth and elegant classical beauty even as it thrills with its raw power and churning energy.
Powerfully Robust Drama Score by James Peterson
Beginning with a bass-rich introduction in the form of "Out of the Darkness," the score quickly establishes itself as one of powerful drama and extremely robust stature - the tearing crescendos in this cue are nearly awe-inspiring in their towering, brass-laden frenzies (indeed, the expanded brass section's function in the score as a whole reminds favorably of Elliot Goldenthal's similarly terrifying applications). If an orchestra could flex its muscles and beat its chest, this is undoubtedly how it would sound.
Continuing in the calmer but no less somber "Awaiting the News," Peterson reveals a true knack for compelling harmony and counterpoint, as the strings-only cue ebbs and flows with a dark, classical grace rarely heard in such enticing form, balancing the high and low ranges of the 60 violins with astonishingly fluent voicing.
Powerhouse Action and Brutal Melodies in The Red Canvas Soundtrack
The two "Death and Resurrection" cues (the lengthiest in the score aside from the monolithic "Ballet for Brawlers") showcase the score's unabashed drama at its finest and most lyrically brutal, providing an excellent survey of the score's tone and construction in general. The tender woodwinds over strong bass strings with highly melodic violin counterpoint in the first of these cues, as well as in "A Great Fighter," are album highlights.
Providing some intriguing respite from the brooding power of the main score are some fine specialty moments, namely the jazz-flavoured "Jazz Cafe" and the noble trumpet solo in "The Attic," as well as a high flute solo in "Grease Monkey Prelude," a disarmingly calm cue before the raging percussion and brass sections in "Grease Money Brawl," easily one of the standout action cues from any film score of 2009; a short reprise of this intense action style occures in "Jungle Rumble" before the score culminates in what is easily a film music highlight of not only 2009, but the entire decade - the nearly twelve-minute "Ballet for Brawlers," one of the most outrageously energetic, thrilling, propulsive and thunderous action suites in recent memory.
Conclusion
The score's drama and emotion is barely contained through the remainder of its cues, with astonishingly rich, classically-inclined passages which may remind many of the golden- and silver-age scores of Miklos Rozsa, Alfred Newman and Bernard Herrmann, among others. This applies as well to Peterson's evocative "Moving Images" film music tribute suite, which is also present on the album; an eclectic but immensely appealing series of score-like orchestral cues which range from lightly adventurous and rapturously romantic in tone to exotic, mysterious and terrifying.
All in all, the release from MovieScore Media is one of the most entertaining and satisfying orchestral albums of the year, and is one of the most impressive debut efforts from any composer of the digital age. The promise it offers of future quality output from James Peterson is an enticing one indeed, and if The Red Canvas is in any way an accurate display of what appears to be an immense new talent in the field, James Peterson should have a magnificent, storied career ahead of him. Very highly recommended!
David Abraham Dueck - I live in MN and do not surf or collect Hello Kitty paraphernalia. I instead play ice hockey, write articles for my blog, read tons of ...
