Juan Atkins' Cybotron to Break 28-Year Release Hiatus with 'Maintain The Golden Ratio'

Detroit techno innovator Juan Atkins has revived his and Rik Davis’ Cybotron project for an electro two-tracker.

Most modern electronic music fans know Juan Atkins as one of the Belleville Three, a trio credited for its role during Detroit techno’s first wave in the late ’80s. Prior to that, however, he made a name for himself as one half of Cybotron. The electro funk outfit hasn’t released anything since 1995’s Cyber Ghetto — that is, until Maintain The Golden Ratio comes out via Tresor Records on October 13.

Ahead of the release, Atkins has shared one of the two tracks comprising the effort. “Maintain” speaks to Cybotron’s sci-fi-inspired take on electro. A far cry from the funky bounce and party-starting lyricism of genre-defining tracks like “Planet Rock” by Afrika Bambaataa and The Soulsonic Force, it leans heavier on suspenseful atmospheres and foreboding spoken-word samples a la early Cybotron singles like “Clear” and “Alleys of Your Mind.

“Cybotron has re-emerged in our contemporary cybercultural age when artifactual futures begin a transition into a new era of ‘Meta’,” reads a description. “By combining their knowledge of philosophy, science fiction, and mechanical engineering, at a time when electronic instrument companies were only just beginning to distribute their products to the masses, two prosumer audio technicians named Juan Atkins and Rik Davis were able to re-engineer Cybotron – a combination of the words “Cyborg” and “Cyclotron” (an atomic particle accelerator) – to be used as a home studio performance music that would change the course of independently produced and distributed electronic music.”

Atkins and Davis famously parted ways in 1985 after working together on Cybotron’s critically acclaimed 1983 album, Enter. The outfit’s releases through 1995 came courtesy of collaborations between Atkins and John Housely. Live performance incarnations of the project have included the likes of Lauren von Oswald (the nephew of Basic Channel member and longtime Atkins collaborator Moritz von Oswald) and DJ Maaco.

Stream “Maintain” by Cybotron, and pre-order Maintain The Golden Ratio in digital and vinyl record formats ahead of its October 1 via Tresor Records’ Bandcamp page.