Detroit, mecca of Taylorism and cradle of techno music

Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saundersson. Three names that will probably mean nothing to you and yet have changed the course of music history. In 2000, this documentary “Surprised by the Night” by Jean-Philippe Renoult and Jacqueline Caux essentially gives voice to the protagonists of the emergence of this musical revolution. It was at the beginning of the 1980s in Detroit, an industrial and poor American city, that what would later be called techno was born.

Techno, multiple influences

The inspirations are extremely diverse: they are as much inspired by the soul and funk of a certain George Clinton as by electronic music from Europe, Kraftwerk in mind. Far from the clichés of poor and repetitive music, Detroit techno is made by sound savants who know how to unearth the rarest and most precious pieces to sample and transform them.

Detroit's sound savants

We hear Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saundersson but also Carl Craig, Richie Hawtin and Jeff Mills, leading figure of the second generation of this Detroit techno. A precious document therefore, punctuated by the compositions of these masters of electronic music.

Find the entire archive program “Techno, still the same?” proposed by Mathias Le Gargasson.

• By Jean-Philippe Renoult and Jacqueline Caux
• Directed by Géraldine Prutner
• With Juan Atkins (DJ, producer, musician), Derrick May (DJ, producer, musician), Kevin Saunderson (DJ, producer, musician), Jeff Mills (DJ, producer, musician), Richie Hawtin (DJ, producer, musician) and Carl Craig (DJ, producer, musician)
• Surprised by the night – Detroit, mecca of Taylorism and cradle of techno music (1st broadcast: 05/12/2000)
• Web edition: Radio France documentation