The Planets is an epic, 75-minute video feature commissioned by the new music ensemble Relâche. The score took composer Kyle Gann 12 years to complete and became a multi-media immersion into the myths and mystery of the planets when Relâche commissioned video artist and director John Sanborn to take viewers on a journey out into space, and inside the play between reality and fantasia.

 

​The piece is richly orchestrated abstract storytelling that blends particle animation, poetry, dance (Margaret Cromwell and Joseph Copley, master improvisers) and video artistry to address our fascination with the planets; the mysteries we ascribe to them and the magisterial influence of the ancient gods the represent.

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The film premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October 2011, before being shown at over a dozen film festivals, world wide. The work is also the media element in a live performance of “The Planets” by Relache. The first live performance was in September 2012, at the Barnes Foundation.