Juan Atkins, one of the originators of techno music and a founding member of the electronic music group Cybotron, has died at the age of 64. The DJ and producer’s talent agency, Greensmith Artists, confirmed the news on social media. Resident Advisor reports that Atkins had been found unresponsive in a hotel room in Mexico City prior to a scheduled performance at Yu Yu Club, and later pronounced dead after being taken to hospital.
Atkins was born in Detroit in 1962 and grew up in the nearby town of Belleville. There, he met Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, two junior high schoolmates with whom he would go on to form the pioneering trio Belleville Three. While still in high school, Atkins formed Cybotron with Richard Davis, absorbing influences ranging from George Clinton to Kraftwerk. The duo’s fusion of synth-driven arrangements, electronic percussion, and futuristic aesthetics defined the rising Detroit techno sound in the early 1980s with landmark singles including ‘Cosmic Cars’ and ‘Clear’. Cybotron released three LPs – 1983’s Enter, 1993’s Empathy, and 1995’s Cyber Ghetto – and, in 2023, their first EP in 28 years, Maintain the Golden Ratio.
After first leaving Cybotron in 1985, Atkins went solo under the moniker Model 500. Continuing to combine mechanistic instrumentation with sci-fi themes, his track ‘No UFOs’ became another foundational release in the genre. He also launched Metroplex, a label that would go on to put out music by artists including Anthony Shakir and DJ Bone. In addition to returning to the alias with records like 1995’s Deep Space, 1999’s Mind and Body, and 2015’s Digital Solutions, Atkis launched another solo project, Infiniti, in the late ’90s, a time when the techno scene he helped create was flourishing. He issued just one album under that moniker, Skynet, in 1998.
Later in his career, Atkins began collaborating with another techno legend, Moritz von Oswald, as Borderland. They released their self-titled album in 2013, following it up with Transport in 2016. He remained active as a touring DJ and performer from his teenage years – having bought his first synth, a Korg MS-10, when he turned 15 – through to the end of his life, influencing countless musicians at every stage of his career. Paying tribute to Atkins on social media, Saunderson called him “a true visionary who opened the door for so many of us, myself included.”
In the wake of Atkins’ death, Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield shared the following statement: “As a teenager with a synthesizer and a big idea, he imagined what the music of the future could be. Then he built it. He kept recording, touring, and pushing the music forward for more than four decades. Just as important, he opened doors for generations of Detroit artists who followed him. On behalf of the City of Detroit, I extend my deepest condolences to Juan’s family, friends, and collaborators, and to music lovers everywhere who are mourning him tonight. Detroit will honor his memory, and his music will keep moving us forward.”
