Among the names gracing the tracklist are key Detroit techno trailblazers Jeff Mills, Juan Atkins, Terrence Dixon, Robert Hood and Claude Young. Techno artists from across the pond such as Surgeon and Moritz von Oswald are featured as well, along with electro mainstays like Drexciya, Helena Hauff and DJ Stingray.

The Detroit-Berlin Connection

Tresor opened its doors in 1991 – following the demise of founder Dimitri Hegemann‘s Ufo Club, and shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. It became not only a symbol of Germany’s reunification, but of the bond between its capital city and the electronic musicians of Detroit. The speaker system was fine tuned with DJs like Mills and Dixon in mind, and along with their contemporaries they became fixtures of the club.

Tresor Records was launched the same year, and it has provided a platform for innumerable artists over its 30-year lifetime. In addition to the aforementioned producers, Joey Beltram, Blake Baxter, Neil Landstrumm and The Advent have released on the label.

Preorder Tresor 30 on the club’s website and find the tracklist for the box set below.

Joining Atkins and May on the lineup are Transmat signees Scan 7 and Drummer B. All donations made during the live stream will go towards MOCAD as well as the artists. “My brother Juan and I decided to do a live stream this Saturday to help people stay at home,” May wrote on Facebook. “This is more important than ever right now.”

Originator and Innovator

As Selector recently explored, Juan Atkins and Derrick May are each seminal figures in Detroit techno. Known as the “Originator” and the “Innovator,” respectively, they worked alongside Kevin Saunderson, known as the “Elevator,” on music that cemented Detroit’s legacy in electronic music. Collectively they are often referred to as the Belleville Three for the rural, middle-class Detroit suburb in which they grew up together.

The Belleville Three were influenced by German electronic music pioneers – most notably the krautrock band Kraftwerk. In turn, first-wave Detroit techno greatly influenced the course of its European counterpart as their first releases were better received in Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K. than domestically.

More information on Party Matrix can be found on the event’s official Facebook page.

Atkins had breathed new life into Cybotron by taking it on tour again last year. The album announcement accompanies that of another series of shows that will run from 2020-2021. Additional collaborators on the new album remain to be announced.

A History of Reciprocity

Kraftwerk – a German krautrock band and electronic music innovator – played no small role in shaping Atkins’ early aesthetic. His work alongside Richard “3070” Davis and John “Jon-5” Housely as Cybotron paved the way for his role as a techno originator, and the genre went on to flourish in Germany in the years that followed.

It wasn’t until their headline set at the 2016 edition of Movement Electronic Music Festival that Kraftwerk finally performed in Detroit. Flür has not performed with the band since 1986, and he has not previously collaborated on any Cybotron releases or performances.

No exact dates have been announced for Cybotron’s upcoming album or tour at the time of writing.