Profile: Dubbed "Godfather of Techno", "Magic" Juan Atkins is the genius who founded Detroit electronic music, and has influenced and inspired a generation of musicians. Working under the monikers Model 500, Infiniti and Cybotron, Atkins is one of the foremost musicians of the genre today, and has yet to meet his equal.

Born and raised on Detroit's northwest side, Juan took his City flavor to suburban Belleville, where he attended high school with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. Atkins's talent emerged early on and he began experimenting with dance music under the influence of the sterile, machine-driven sounds of Kraftwerk and the bass-notic funk of Detroit's own Parliament-Funkadelic. What emerged was Cybotron, which quickly gained Atkins and partner Rick Davies nationally renowned acclaim, charting top-40 on black music radio.

As his musicality developed, Atkins ventured on alone as Model 500, releasing minimalist, high-tech classics such as No UFO's, The Chase, Nightdrive and Ocean to Ocean.

By this time, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May had already begun their experimentation, and under Atkins's direction, the three unleashed their talent to create the breathtaking Inner City release. It was soon followed by Big Fun, which first deluged London, and then all of Europe, with the massive, electrifying sound of techno.

>From that point, Atkins's reputation flourished, and he received requests to remix pop hits from Dr. Robert & Kim Mayzelle, Coldcut, Yaz, Fine Young Cannibals, The Tom Tom Club, The Beloved, and Carl Cox.

Although Atkins continued to produce cutting-edge, anthemic dance singles during that time, it wasn't until 1994 that he released his first mini-LP entitled Sonic Sunset, followed in 1995 by Deep Space. With these landmark hits, his acclaim finally came home to the growing audiences of North America. His distinctive utopian sound can be heard in some of the most remote corners of the globe, wherever people gather to dance and celebrate life.

The fluidity of his chords and the awe-inspiring power of the inimitable bass line that are his signature have attracted a huge following of fans who soon bumped to another stand-out Model 500 album, Mind and Body, 1999.

Atkins continues his musical and philosophical perspective. In an industry that is inspired by his work yet sometimes bastardizes the word and sound he created, Atkins remains a stand-out as an historical Godfather icon in documentaries, feature films and books, cataloguing his visionary contribution. He anticipated the record industry by a full decade.
The industry as a whole, especially in Europe, has constantly put pressure on Detroit artists, Atkins in particular, to re-invent the wheel and to continuously refresh and advance the dance sound. With a new perspective, a move to Los Angeles to fulfill a lifelong dream of producing an album by the ocean, and a return to the sound of Black America, Atkins is accomplishing just that.

To those who truly know its roots and love techno/electronic music, Atkins's musical genius is a deep pool of inspiration that has changed their lives forever. Whatever the future holds and while North America dominates and commercializes the sound of his European imitators and followers, Atkins is still the standout, the Sly Stone, the Miles Davis virtuoso of electronic funk.