​Mille Plateaux founder Achim Szepanski has died aged 67

Pioneering German glitch producer and Mille Plateaux founder Achim Szepanski has died aged 67, a friend of the late artist has confirmed.

“With a heavy heart I have to inform you about the passing of Achim Szepanski,” a close friend and translator for Szepanski said on Twitter on Tuesday (September 24).

“[Szepanski] was a one of a kind thinker,” they added. “As a radical voice he will be deeply missed, especially for the morally bankrupt left in Germany. Missing him dearly, RIP.”

Achim Szepanski founded the influential German record label Mille Plateaux in 1993 as a sub-label of Force Inc. before it became defunct, with a focus on glitch, ambient, and experimental music.

Cristian Vogel, Dean Roberts, Thomas Köner, Oval, and DJ Spooky are just a handful of the artists who released on Mille Plateaux over the years, along with dozens of other experimental artists.

In 2000, Mille Plateaux launched a compilation series under the name ‘Clicks & Cuts’ featuring glitch artists from all over the world, today renowned as one of the pioneering launchpads for the genre.

Szepanski was also known for his writing work, penning books including Ultrablack of Music and his most recent project released this year, Capitalism in the Age of Catastrophe.

“Achim ran the platform NON for years on end, it's an invaluable resource for radical thinking,” his translator wrote in tribute, highlighting some of his recent written works.

In a tribute posted on Twitter yesterday (September 25), DJ and CTM Festival curator Opium Hum wrote: “I wouldn't be where I am without the work of Achim Szepanski.”

“As a teenager his labels Force Inc. & Mille Plateaux expanded my understanding of electronic music in ways I never thought possible and prepared the grounds for what would become a life-long obsession with sound and its cultural context,” he said.

Read some tributes below.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Assistant Editor, follow her on Twitter