Juan Atkins, who helped create the electronic music genre with school friends in suburban Detroit in the 1980s, has died, his booking agency said Sunday.
He is 64 years old.
Collaborator Kevin Saunderson also shared the news on his Facebook page, saying: “Juan was the founder of Techno, a true visionary who opened doors for so many of us (myself included).”
Atkins, who played electronic records as a well-known club and festival DJ, was scheduled to perform at Mexico City’s Yu Yu club on Saturday, but before news of Atkins’ death broke, the club said on Instagram that the show was canceled.
In 1981, Atkins formed the duo Cybotron with Richard Davis, a friend he met at a community college in the Detroit area. According to the duo’s Discogs biography, they released “Clear,” a robotic futuristic dance song in 1983 that resonated through the speakers of clubs and breakdancers.
The foundation of electronic music — Kraftwerk, Afrika Bambaataa, the breakbeat hip-hop known as techno and the post-disco sound — Atkins and friends from Belleville High School, about 35 miles west of downtown Detroit, were tinkering with electronic music and listening to the weird, wild sounds of radio DJ The Electrifying Mojo.
Atkins, Sanderson and Derek May were known as the Belleville Three. Maye told the Detroit Metro Times last year that the three, along with Atkins’ brother Aaron, would skip school to listen to jazz.
“I was so impressed and fascinated by Juan and Aaron, so I just followed them, man — I just became Juan’s disciple,” May told Metro Times.
Sanderson’s greatest early success came 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.
According to author Dan Sicko’s Techno Rebels, the origin story of techno is that of a rebellious sound rooted in a dystopian vision of a digital future that grew out of Atkins’ fascination with author Alvin Toffler’s The Third Wave.
Cybotron’s “Tech City,” released in 1984, is a bittersweet ode to Detroit, which was collapsing in parts as the U.S. economy recovered from the recession.
As the Berlin Wall fell, the inner city’s subsequent success helped Belleville become a three-star hotel in Europe. Berlin will become a technology capital.
The Belleville trio found fans and gigs in Europe, but bemoaned dance music fans who thought electronic music was created there. (Metro Times declared last year that “tech is black.”)
Missy Elliott put Detroit techno on the pop map by sampling Cybotron’s “Clear” on 2005’s “Lose Control.” In 2023, Atkins revived Cybotron by releasing new music through the Tresor label, with the help of Berlin-based producer Laurens von Oswald.
Techno’s Detroit roots are reinforced by the city’s Sports Festival (which says “Experience the birthplace of techno”) and the NBA’s Pistons releasing apparel that pays homage to the Belleville trio.
“Detroit is home,” the trio said in a joint statement accompanying the January apparel release. “Everything we do starts with this city, its people, its clubs and its energy.”
Following the trio came the “boom-tss” sounds of techno performed by Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin, Underground Resistance members, DJ Hell and Carl Cox.
“It was with a heavy heart that I heard the news of Juan Atkins’ passing,” Cox said on Facebook on Sunday, adding that Cybotron’s “Clear” has “never left my soul.”
German tech 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 forever.”