Early Stages
Detroit Techno as a Starting point. Mid 1980's
Detroit, Michigan is seen as the birthplace of Techno. It is unclear who started the movement but Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May, Jeff Mills and many others, had a big role in shaping the Genre.
In Detroit, techno resulted from the melding of African American music including Chicago house, funk, electro, and electric jazz with electronic music by artists such as Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder, and Yellow Magic Orchestra. Added to this is the influence of futuristic and fictional themes relevant to life in American late capitalist society, with Alvin Toffler's book The Third Wave being a notable point of reference. Pioneering producer Juan Atkins cites Toffler's phrase "techno rebels" as inspiring him to use the word techno to describe the musical style he helped to create. This unique blend of influences aligns techno with the aesthetic referred to as afrofuturism. To producers such as Derrick May, the transference of spirit from the body to the machine is often a central preoccupation; essentially an expression of technological spirituality. In this manner: "techno dance music defeats what Adorno saw as the alienating effect of mechanisation on the modern consciousness".
One of the founding fathers, Kevin Saunderson
Sven Väth Djing at a rave in the late 90's
Germany's engagement with American underground dance music during the 1980s paralleled that in the UK. By 1987 a German party scene based around the Chicago sound was well established. The following year (1988) saw acid house making as significant an impact on popular consciousness in Germany as it had in England. In 1989 German DJs Westbam and Dr. Motte established the Ufo club, an illegal party venue, and co-founded the Love Parade. After the Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989, free underground techno parties mushroomed in East Berlin, and a rave scene comparable to that in the UK was established.
Richie Hawtin is a genuine original. His critical acclaim spans the creative realm of the fine art community to the technological vanguard. Meanwhile, as a performing artist, he is constantly pushing conceptual frontiers, moving things forward, welcoming as many as he can to ideas and experiences that would have seemed pure science fiction when he began his career.
Modern Techno
Here we see Richie Hawtin during an Off - Sonar party in Barcelona.
Awakenings Festival is the highlight of Europe’s techno music calendar / one of the most well known electronic events in Europe. With more than 70.000 visitors in a weekend, Awakenings Festival is one of the largest outdoor techno festival in the world.
The first festival was in 2001 and started as a one day festival. Nowadays it’s become a two-day festival with eight(!) stages, programmed with a mind-blowing line-up representing the topnotch DJ's in techno music and its sub-genres.
