Juan Atkins, who helped create the techno music genre with school friends in suburban Detroit in the 1980s, has died, his booking agency said Sunday.
He was 64.
Collaborator Kevin Saunderson also shared the news on his Facebook page, saying, “Juan was the originator of Techno, a true visionary who opened the door for so many of us, myself included.”
Atkins, who played techno records as a noted club and festival DJ, was scheduled to perform Saturday at the club Yu Yu in Mexico City, but the appearance was canceled, the club said 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 robotic, futuristic dance track that resonated in clubland and in breakdancers’ boomboxes, according to the duo’s Discogs biography.
The foundations of techno — Kraftwerk, Afrika Bambaataa, breakdancing hip-hop known as electro and the post-disco sound of house music — were present as Atkins and friends from Belleville High School, about 35 miles west of downtown Detroit, tinkered with electronic music and listened to the weird, 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 enamored with Juan and Aaron that I just followed them, man — I just became Juan’s disciple,” May told the Metro Times.
Saunderson had the biggest early success when his act, Inner City, released “Big Fun” and “Good Life,” which became club hits in the U.S. and the U.K. in 1988.
Atkins became the genre’s wiseman.
Techno’s origin story as a rebel sound rooted in visions of a dystopian, digital future was born 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 collapsing in places as the U.S. economy recovered from recession.
Inner City’s subsequent success helped make the Belleville Three stars in Europe, just as the Berlin Wall fell. Berlin would take over as techno’s capital.
The Belleville Three found fans and gigs in Europe but bemoaned dance music fans who believe techno was created there. (“Techno is Black,” the Metro Times declared last year.)
Missy Elliott put Detroit techno on pop music’s map by sampling Cybotron’s “Clear” for 2005’s “Lose Control.” And in 2023, Atkins revived Cybotron with the help of Berlin producer Laurens von Oswald by releasing new music on the Tresor label.
Techno’s Detroit roots found reinforcement from the city’s Movement Festival (“Experience the birthplace of Techno,” it said), and the NBA’s Pistons’ release of clothing that pays homage to the Belleville Three.
“Detroit is home,” the trio said in a joint statement about the clothing release in January. “Everything we’ve ever made started with this city, its people, its clubs, and its energy.”
In the trio’s wake came techno’s telltale, “boom-tss” sound, as performed by Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin, the Underground Resistance crew, DJ Hell and Carl Cox.
“It’s with a heavy heart to hear about 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.”
