Mexico City, Mexico – Juan Atkins, a Detroit producer and pioneer of the techno music genre, has died at 64, his agency said on Sunday.
Atkins was found unresponsive in his hotel room ahead of a planned performance in Mexico City and later pronounced dead at hospital, his agency Greensmith Artists told Resident Advisor music magazine.
“So many years. So many stages. So many moments we’ll never forget. And somehow, we always thought there would be more,” Greensmith Artists said in an Instagram post, accompanied by a video of one of Atkins’ past performances in a London nightclub.
Atkins began his music career in 1980, when he formed Cybotron with Richard Davis.
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The duo released Clear in 1983, which became one of the defining records of the techno genre.
Born in 1962, Atkins and classmates Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May were known as the “Belleville Three” and are recognized as the founders of the genre.
Atkins is credited with coining the term “techno” with his 1988 track Techno Music, part of the compilation album Techno! The New Dance Sound Of Detroit.
“Juan was the originator of Techno, a true visionary who opened the door for so many of us, myself included,” Saunderson said in a tribute on Facebook.
