Juan Atkins, who helped create the techno music genre with school friends in suburban Detroit in the 1980s, has died, his booking agency announced Sunday.
He was 64 years old.
Contributor Kevin Saunderson also shared the news on his Facebook page, saying: “Juan was the creator of Techno, a true visionary who opened the door for many of us, including me. »
Atkins, who played techno records as a well-known DJ at clubs and festivals, was scheduled to perform Saturday at the Yu Yu club in Mexico City, but the appearance was canceled, the club announced on Instagram before news of his death broke.
In 1981, Atkins formed a duo, Cybotron, with Richard Davis, a friend he met at a Detroit-area community college, and in 1983 they released “Clear,” a futuristic, robotic dance track that resonated in clubs and breakdancers’ boomboxes, according to the duo’s Discogs biography.
The foundations of techno — Kraftwerk, Afrika Bambaataa, the breakdancing hip-hop known as electro and the post-disco sound of house music — were present as Atkins and his high school friends in Belleville, about 35 miles west of downtown Detroit, tinkered with electronic music and listened to the strange, wild sounds of radio DJ The Electrifying Mojo.
Atkins, Saunderson and Derrick May were nicknamed the Belleville Three. May told the Detroit Metro Times last year that the trio, along with Atkins’ brother Aaron, would skip school and listen to jazz.
“I was so impressed and in love with Juan and Aaron that I just followed them, man – I just became Juan’s follower,” May told Metro Times.
Saunderson achieved the greatest early success when his band, Inner City, released “Big Fun” and “Good Life”, which became club hits in the US and UK in 1988.
Atkins became the sage of the genre.
The origin story of techno as a rebellious sound rooted in visions of a dystopian digital future grew out of Atkins’ fascination with author Alvin Toffler’s “The Third Wave,” according to author Dan Sicko’s “Techno Rebels.”
Cybotron’s 1984 release, “Techno City,” is a bittersweet ode to a Detroit that was falling apart in places as the American economy recovered from recession.
The subsequent success of Inner City helped make Belleville Three Stars in Europe, just as the Berlin Wall was falling. Berlin would become the capital of techno.
The Belleville Three found fans and gigs in Europe, but lamented dance music fans who believe techno was created there. (“Techno is black,” declared the Metro Times last year.)
Missy Elliott put Detroit techno on the pop music map by sampling Cybotron’s “Clear” for 2005’s “Lose Control.” And in 2023, Atkins relaunched Cybotron with the help of Berlin producer Laurens von Oswald by releasing new music on the Tresor label.
Techno’s roots in Detroit were reinforced by the city’s Movement Festival (“Experience the birthplace of Techno,” he said) and the release of NBA Pistons clothing that paid homage to the Belleville Three.
“Detroit is our home,” the trio said in a joint statement about the clothing’s January release. “Everything we created started with this city, its people, its clubs and its energy.”
In the wake of the trio came the revelatory sound of techno, “boom-tss,” performed by Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin, the Underground Resistance crew, DJ Hell and Carl Cox.
“It is with a heavy heart to learn of the passing of Juan Atkins,” Cox said Sunday on Facebook, adding that Cybotron’s “Clear” “never left my soul.”
German techno star Sven Väth called the news of Atkins’ death “heartbreaking.”
“His vision inspired generations and helped build a musical bridge between Detroit and Berlin,” he said on Instagram. “Juan was truly ahead of his time.”
Väth concluded: “Your music, your vision and your spirit will live on. »
Gn entert
