Time to listen
A mix, interview or review gets the time and space it needs. We publish when there is something to share.
About / Secret Thirteen
Beyond the
Beyond the
obvious.
Audio archaeology since 2010. Mixes, interviews and underground histories. Independently run from Lithuania.
Explore the mixes- Established
- 13 March 2010
- Origin
- Panevėžys, Lithuania
- Based in
- Vilnius, Lithuania
- Run independently
- Non-commercial / DIY
The archive is a way of listening.
Records, artists and the histories between them.
Secret Thirteen began in Panevėžys, Lithuania, on 13 March 2010. Audio archaeology is the thread: mixes, interviews and underground histories. The journal is independently run.
The archive crosses genres and scenes. Academic composition sits beside industrial music, folk recordings, post-punk and electronic music. We follow the connections between records, places and the people who made them.
Invited artists, musicians, label founders and collectors make personal selections for the journal. Each mix is a way into their listening: the records they return to, unexpected influences and work of their own. The accompanying interview or article gives those choices context.
Listening gives us a reason to keep looking. A forgotten recording, a new artist or a connection across decades can change where the next mix begins.
“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
Aldous Huxley
What stays constant.
Context
We ask about histories, working methods and the circumstances around a record or performance. Credits and source links stay with the work.
Curiosity
Established artists and less familiar names share the archive. A record’s reputation matters less than what we hear in it.
Room for change
Different selectors bring different approaches. We leave room for a mix or conversation to lead somewhere we had not expected.
Since 2010.
Panevėžys
Justinas Mikulskis started Secret Thirteen in Panevėžys. It grew from collecting music, organising scattered knowledge and wanting to share the work of artists he followed.
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The journal expands
The journal expanded into mixes, interviews, label spotlights and reviews in English. Contributors joined from Lithuania and abroad, and its editorial base moved to Vilnius. The Guide, later New Blood, invited new selectors through mix competitions.
Explore New Blood—
Beyond the screen
The Flatlines event series, developed with Kablys in Vilnius, brought artists and listeners together in person. Further events followed. In 2019 Secret Thirteen released its first limited cassette: Ex Nullo by Lithuanian industrial/noise duo Tiese.
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Secret Communications
A monthly programme on Berlin’s Cashmere Radio ran for twenty-nine episodes, moving through experimental music, industrial music, post-punk, ambient, folk and jazz.
—Now
Return to the signal
After a three-year pause, Justinas resumed the journal. Secret Thirteen remains an independently run, non-commercial DIY project. The archive keeps its earlier work alongside new publications.
One journal, many traces.
Justinas Mikulskis / S13
Justinas edits the journal, maintains the archive and works directly with invited artists and contributors.
His editorial work and his practice as DJ S13 have separate homes in the archive.
The people behind the work.
Writers, editors, photographers, designers, artists and invited selectors have contributed to Secret Thirteen over the years. Their work and credits remain part of the archive.
Past contributors and collaborators include Tadas Švenčionis, Paulius Ilevičius, Radvilė Nakaitė, Laima Stasiulionytė, Evelina Atkočiūnaitė, Armando Valdés, Dijana Grubor, Milda Batakytė, Alexander Iadarola, Margarita Niedvaraitė and visual artist Alioscha Sokolov (su-y), among others. Individual authorship and image credits remain attached to the work throughout the archive.
From Vilnius outward.
Based in Lithuania. Read and heard elsewhere.
Secret Thirteen has worked with festivals, platforms and independent organisations including Unsound, L.E.V., Berlin Atonal, Up To Date, Skaņu Mežs, Sūpynės, Braille Satellite, SHAPE and Mixcloud.
Contributors and invited artists come from Lithuania and its neighbouring scenes, Europe, Asia, the Americas, Australia and elsewhere. Those connections continue to shape what appears in the journal.
Our mixes and releases are also documented in the Secret Thirteen Journal catalogue on Discogs. It is maintained through community contributions and offers another way to trace the work.
Keep the signal alive.
For music, corrections, credits or a note to the journal, get in touch. Secret Thirteen is independently run; each message reaches the person who edits it.
Contact the journal