MovieScore Media’s latest release comes courtesy of Oscar-nominated composer George Fenton: Red Joan, starring Academy Award-winner Dame Judi Dench, is based on Jennie Rooney's novel of the same name, which in turn was inspired by the real life of Melita Norwood. The film tells the story of Joan Stanley who finds himself in the middle of an investigation for spying and treason. The flashbacks to her younger days slowly reveal how she got involved in espionage and what made her turn against her own country...

In many ways, probably because it's a piano based score, George Fenton's music for Red Joan reminded me stylistically of John Williams's music for Angela's Ashes (1999). The album contains 25 tracks (54 min, 52 sec) and allows Fenton to really tap into his subtle talents as he delivers some beautifully melancholic themes.

"I regard Red Joan as a personal score - by which I mean personal to the character of Joan" explains composer George Fenton about the music. "My aim was to find a tonal language that sat well with the story of Joan in the 1930s but which never lost the sense of the story being told and remembered by the older Joan. A balance between the immediacy of young Joan’s experience and old Joan’s recollections. My hope is that even when heard away from the film that the music evokes the narrative of this extraordinary story."

This is an album that slowly builds and, equally, slowly grows on the listener. On the first play through I enjoyed it, but each subsequent listen has resulted in me getting to discover its finer points... and there are plenty to unearth.

Fenton delivers an incredibly powerful and emotional score with the minimalist of fuss.

9

Darren Rea