It’s a loss that’s beyond words. Juan Atkins, who coined the term “techno” and is often called “the originator,” has died at 64. My deepest condolences to friends, family, and so many people I know who worked with and were inspired by this singular human being.
Cybotron, 1980. Model 500. Infiniti. Borderland, with Moritz von Oswald. The projects alone from Juan Atkins make up headings in the history of techno. (Speaking of people whose memory to keep, I am just rereading Dan Sicko’s Techno Rebels.) This is a history we need to get right, to respect what Juan Atkins achieved: some of the seminal fusion of funk and soul with the electronic sounds of Kraftwerk and the like, and “techno” as a term.
But we’re also losing pioneers, and we need to constantly be aware of life’s fragility, that we’re not just machines — love the machines as we do.
The agency Greensmith Artists has right up to the obituary for yesterday the record of how active Juan Atkins has remained up until the last, including this shoot for a just-completed interview. Speaking of roots, he talks about his grandmother Lily, and her playing her Hammond B-3 — and taking Juan out to buy his first synth, a KORG MS-10. As he says in the closing line of that story: “I’m going to be making music ’til I leave this planet, and then maybe for some time afterwards too.”
“I’m going to be making music ’til I leave this planet, and then maybe for some time afterwards too.”
Juan Atkins
We have this just-posted set from Dekmental this year, too, a deeply emotional journey through grooves. (Now with the image in mind, I can almost hear strains of that B-3 in there somewhere.)
The other two members of the Belleville Three have weighed in, too. Derrick May notes that Atkins played until the end, that “he never complained, he never mentioned how sick he was, for years; he just went out and did his job the best way he could.”
Kevin Saunderson memorializes that relationship:
More memories:
What Dweller says here, in particular about technology:
Here’s Juan in Detroit, raising funds “with Raise The Flag, a local Detroit collective, for Wolverine Human Services, a non-profit based on helping kids in transitional housing.” Visuals by ACE (Andrew Charles Edman).
And at the opposite end of the scale spectrum, full orchestra — a testament to how techno has become a musical art form to answer — and expand — something like European classical music.
I’m not going to repeat albums here; let’s let Juan himself tell the story, as he does beautifully in these interviews:
He looks to technology, but also beyond it. “Ease… does tend to make one a little lazy, in terms of pushing the envelope,” he’s warned in this video. (He’s had similar warnings about AI.) “It’s a give and take — a compromise that you give to be able to have more options to go places … where no man has gone before.”
“…to go places … where no man has gone before.”
A call to action — before we all head off to explore strange new worlds, we need to take care of one another on this one.
That means checking up on one another. That means exploring organ donation routes (including for many on your government ID or drivers’ license), and what to consider for kidney donation. It means dismantling inequity and racism and discrimination in our health care systems — in the USA, here in another techno capital Germany, and everywhere else. It means treating our idols in human ways, treating this career in humane ways — as a lover of machines, not giving way to capitalist systems that treat us like we’re robots. We should fight for access to health care and support when people need it.
I don’t mean to speak specifically to Juan Atkins’ case; I’m grateful he was able to keep working, as I know what that means to me and so many people I know in our own lives. But we can’t only show up and memorialize people when they’re gone. We should honor and respect their legacy and continue that word. And we should also make sure that everyone gets the chance to play as long as they can on their continuing voyages.
The best places to read the obituary as far as press are in Detroit:
Juan Atkins, Detroit pioneer who coined term ‘techno,’ dies at 64 [Detroit News]
Juan Atkins, Detroit techno music trailblazer, dies at 64 [Detroit Free Press]