Konsonant Music’s Gil Talmi (left) and Andrew Gross. (Photo courtesy Konsonant Music)

Konsonant Music is heading to the 2019 Sundance Film Festival with four debuts titles enhanced by their melodious input. A pair of Netflix documentaries — The Great Hack and The Edge of Democracy — TBS’s comedic The Dressup Gang and indie telefilm It’s Not About Jimmy Keene represent the composition and music supervision firm’s offerings at the festival, taking place Jan. 24-Feb. 3 in Park City, Utah.

“We love working with independent filmmakers…their unique vision, bold approach, and inspiring courage to manifest that vision in the world and share that passion to communicate emotion through storytelling,” commented Konsonant partner Andrew Gross. “Having just one project screen at the biggest US film festival is always cause for celebration, but to have four at the same time is incredibly gratifying,” added partner Gil Talmi. “Each of these projects has a strong vision by independent filmmakers who are not afraid to bring a strong voice to their creativity and social consciousness.”

Both Gross and Talmi are composers and share creative director titles at  Konsonant, which they launched in 2008 with Gross based in Los Angeles and Talmi in Brooklyn. Working across all media platforms, the firm offers original scoring as well as music supervision services, clearances and licensing, sound design and editing and music consultation.

Konsonant’s Gil Talmi created the score for the Netflix doc The Great Hack. (Photo courtesy Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer)

Talmi provided the original score for Netflix’s The Great Hack a  look at how data has surpassed oil as the world’s most valuable asset, and how that data is being weaponized to wage cultural and political wars. Academy Award-nominated directors Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim mark their return to the Sundance Film Festival with the ethically probing investigative piece.

“Scoring The Great Hack has been a tremendous opportunity, allowing me to blend many of my musical influences into a brand new sonic palette for this important film: light and darkness, technology vs. humanity, and the interplay between those elements.” The human aspect is represented primarily through orchestral instruments, “with a heavy emphasis on intimate piano for the internal worlds.” Modular synthesizers convey  data streams in what Talmi describes as “an in-depth collaboration with the filmmakers, with great attention to detail.”

Gil Talmi lent consulting and music services to “The Edge of Democracy,” a Netflix doc. (Photo: Orlando Brito)

For Netflix’s The Edge of Democracy Talmi consulted with the filmmakers over the past two years and Talmi also scored the show using music from the Konsonant as the result of the filmmakers winning a prize that included a Konsonant scoring package at the 2016 Tribeca Film Institute. The film follows Brazil’s embattled leaders as they grapple with a scandal born out of their country’s fascist past. Director Petra Costa’s film carries a political warning: Brazil’s crisis is one that is shared – and fomented – by Western superpowers.

The film explores how Brazil, once a nation crippled by military dictatorship, found its democratic footing in 1985. Cut to 2002, when the nation elected a hugely popular political disrupter, steel-worker-turned-activist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Under his watch, 20 million Brazilians were lifted out of poverty, and his country rose to international prominence. In 2010, “Lula” passed the presidential baton to his prodigy, a fierce female guerrilla named Dilma Rousseff. But beneath their sunny legacy, rumblings of populist rage and institutional corruption seeped into the mainstream.

Cory Loykasek and Donny Divanian appear in The Dress Up Gang an official selection of the Indie Episodic program at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo: John Rutland)

Based on a cult internet hit,  TBS’s new episodic comedy series The Dress Up Gang  features Gross as the composer (including the theme) and executive music supervisor for the pilot, premiering at Sundance. The surrealistic show focuses on the antics of  Donny, a responsible adult with the innocence and outlook of a child, and his friend Cory, a dad-like thirtysomething who has been crashing on Donny’s couch for quite some time.  The theme was recorded with a live orchestra at Nashville’s historic Ocean Way Studios, and features the exquisite vocal performance of Ty Taylor (Vintage Trouble). Gross says the show’s creative team had a strong vision of how they wanted music to function in their show’s world. “It’s a modern comedy that uses performances, dialog and music from the 1940s and ‘50s. So we licensed music from that bygone era, and I also write music that sounds like it came from that period.”

Konsonant’s Gil Talmi worked on the music for Sundance contender It’s Not About Jimmy Keene. (Photo: Diana Kunce)

Set in Los Angeles in 2015, It’s Not About Jimmy Keene blends gangsters and street poets, ultimately focusing on a young, bi-racial teen named Ivan Roistacher, a youngster in search of his own voice. Gross served as music supervisor, finding the right tone for this unusual story. “This project occupies a special place in my heart, since I’ve known (director/writer/actor) Caleb Jaffe  since he was five years old.” When it came to post production, Gross also helped supervise the scoring process with Caleb and composer Sofia Frohna. “They were so committed to the story and tone, I just wanted to do whatever they needed to help bring their vision to life – this even included conducting at the scoring session, so Caleb and Sofia could be in the booth and focus on their creative collaboration.”

Other recent projects Konsonant has worked on include: the history of queer cinema indie doc Dykes, Camera, Action!; an untitled Tim Robinson series at Netflix; Aubin Pictures’ Chavela; the Imax films Building The American Dream and Backyard Wilderness; PBS’ Tres Maison Dasan;  American Idol for ABC and Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance. The company’s credits also include work for Walt Disney Animation Studios, HBO, Bravo, CBS, Sony Pictures, DreamWorks, Universal Pictures, Pixar, National Geographic, MGM, and others.

The duo arrived at this point in their careers illustriously. Gross scored his first studio feature, MGM’s Bio-Dome, at the age of 25, and has since scored more than 30 features and 100 episodes of primetime TV, with credits that include  The King of Queens (CBS), Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (New Line), and 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (Orion). His music has been licensed for use in the films Nacho Libre (Paramount), The Good Girl (Fox), American Idol (ABC), and the trailer for Ratatouille (Disney).
He has won BMI Film &TV Awards for his work on King of Queens, and is part of the RIAA Gold and Platinum  record experience for his string arrangements on the Tenacious D albums.

Emmy Award-nominated Talmi is known for blending traditional orchestral background with tasteful modular electronics and eclectic world music sensibilities.  He works out of a 1,700 square-foot scoring facility with views of Manhattan in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Some of his most recent work includes Chavela (Aubin Pictures), Man On Fire (Fendelman Films/PBS), Dykes, Camera, Action! (Caroline Berler Films), Tre Maison Dasan (Hello World/PBS), Straight/Curve (Epix), and the opening theme to the CBS News: 50 Years of 60 Minutes special.

Talmi scored the Peabody Award-winning documentaries Between The Folds (PBS Independent Lens), Who Killed Chea Vichea? (PBS), and New Year Baby (PBS Independent Lens), winner of the Amnesty International Movies That Matter Award. Talmi’s score for Archipelago Film’s Backyard Wilderness was recently nominated for best original score at the 2018 GSCA Awards.

For more information about the Konsonant’s presence at Sundance, including schedules, see: http://geni.us/KonsonantSundance2019