Secret Thirteen / Artist profile

DJ S13

DJ · Sound artist · Curator

Sound as research, selection and a living archive.

DJ S13 in Iceland
01 / PortraitIceland, 2017
OriginPanevėžys, Lithuania
PracticeSound / Curation / Visual art
ArchiveSecret Thirteen / Since 2010
Publications252
01 / Biography

Sound as archive,
matter and memory.

DJ S13 is the artistic identity of Justinas Mikulskis (b. 1986), founder and editor of Secret Thirteen, an independent music journal established in 2010. His work as a DJ, sound artist and curator operates between audio archaeology, journalism and visual art.

01

Origins & atmosphere

The sonic identity of S13 was formed in the post-industrial landscape of Panevėžys. Brutalist factories, material decay and the quiet pressure of a post-Soviet city sharpened an early sensitivity to texture and darker sound. At ten, with help from his engineer grandfather, he constructed his first DJ mixer. An uncle’s record collection — black metal, punk and 1970s rock — opened a route toward anarchism, philosophy, science fiction and a life built outside conventional cultural structures.

02

The evolution of sound

Early roots in jungle and drum’n’bass, including productions for Liquid V and Vampire, quickly expanded into a more abstract language. S13 sets move between industrial rhythm, ethnographic field recordings, new wave, drone and academic composition. Each performance is treated as research: material is not repeated, but reorganised into a new narrative of pressure, space and time.

03

Performance & curation

S13 has appeared at Berlin Atonal, Arma17, Norbergfestival and Unsound events, sharing programmes with Mika Vainio, Esplendor Geométrico, Demdike Stare, The Soft Moon and Fennesz. Mix commissions include Electronic Explorations, Headphone Commute, Seek Sick Sound, Cashmere Radio and other independent platforms.

04

Across disciplines

Mikulskis approaches sound as both a physical and visual entity. His wider practice includes abstract industrial assemblages made from metal waste, lectures on musical narrative and industry context, and sonic installations such as The Energy System of the Užutrakis Manor Orangery as a Sonic Negative. He continues to build Secret Thirteen as a durable resource for future listeners.

02 / On stage

In the room.

Performance footage and selected posters from the archive.

DJ S13 performing beneath red light at Audra Festival in Kaunas
Audra Festival / Kaunas, 2022Photo by Vytenis Sidabras
Rotating sequence of DJ S13 at Digital Tsunami
Digital Tsunami / rotating frame
Sūpynės Festival / filmed performance, 2019
Berlin Atonal 2014 poster listing S13 on the aftershow programme
Berlin Atonal / 2014
Holotone Showcase poster at Berghain Kantine in Berlin, listing S13
Holotone Showcase / Berlin, 2016
Space Love at Arma17 poster listing S13
Space Love / Arma17, 2014
Polar Inertia at Kablys poster listing S13
Polar Inertia / Kablys
UMBRA 2014 poster with Emptyset and DJ S13
UMBRA / Kablys, 2014
Undogmatisch at Urban Spree Berlin 2015 poster listing S13
Undogmatisch / Berlin, 2015
Audra Festival 2022 poster listing S13
Audra Festival / 2022
Sūpynės Festival 2019 poster
Sūpynės Festival / 2019
Digital Tsunami Camp 2022 poster listing S13
Digital Tsunami Camp / 2022
03 / Personal archive

External transmissions

Documented mixes and radio shows, 2008—2024. Recent recordings open a listening page; earlier recordings remain in the original download archive.

2024

Audra Showcase — S13 / 23 May Radio Vilnius / Listen

2023

Audra Showcase — S13 / 22 June Radio Vilnius / Listen

2022

Digital Tsunami Camp 2022 SoundCloud / Listen Losing Touch w/ S13 — 22 June Radio Vilnius / Listen Losing Touch w/ S13 — SEINEN special / 11 May Radio Vilnius / Listen Losing Touch w/ S13 — 6 April Radio Vilnius / Listen Losing Touch w/ S13 — 2 March Radio Vilnius / Listen

2021

Losing Touch w/ S13 — 20 October Radio Vilnius / Listen Losing Touch w/ S13 — 18 August Radio Vilnius / Listen Losing Touch w/ S13 — 21 July Radio Vilnius / Listen 90s Techno DJ set @ Mėnulio Smūgis / Digital Tsunami LT Secret Communications Show / Cashmere Radio DE

2020

URBEX Podcast 011 LT

2019

Phormix Podcast 160 GR New Brvtalism No. 197 DE / USA

2017

Digital Tsunami 130 LT Electronic Beats Podcast DE

2016

Boxcast Podcast 001 LT

2015

Seek Sick Sound Podcast 167 FR

2014

Burning The Existence Archive file Arma Podcast 144 RU

2013

Electronic Explorations Podcast 281 UK Experimedia Podcast USA A Strangely Isolated Place Podcast 036 USA Do / Nothing Podcast RU Sūpynės Festival Podcast LT Planeta Modular Podcast 035 ES

2012

Headphone Commute Podcast USA Sound Alchemy Podcast 001 LT Modyfier Process Podcast 305 USA Fluid Radio Podcast UK International Tapes Podcast USA Pusha Ace — Sunday Bug Podcast LT Icasea Podcast UK

2011

13 Memorable 2011 Records Archive file Bangos Podcast LT Redubtor Podcast 13 LT Trilogy — WARP / REPHLEX / RN Archive file

2010

Trilogy — Now Voyager Archive file Redubtor Podcast 05 LT

2009

Sensor Archive file Elektrolankos Radio LT Rotator Archive file IM:LTd Podcast 01 Archive file

2008

Duofilm Not available
04 / In conversation

The other side
of the microphone.

Justinas Mikulskis as a guest: conversations about making music, listening and building Secret Thirteen. DJ sets and his own editorial work are archived separately.

Also in the archive / 2019An extended interview on Lithuanian rave culture appears in Skirmantė Jaryginaitė’s research thesis, from page 98.

05 / Editorial archive

Writing.

Mix features, interviews and reviews written by DJ S13 for Secret Thirteen.

Publications archive

1–12 of 252 publications
OTTOMAN GRÜW among warm red steel beams, with motion blur and the complete visible boot above a grey floor.
STM 319

Ottoman Grüw

39 selections connect EBM, industrial, ambient and post-rock, including four unreleased works from his own projects. A two-hour mix shaped by Paris, Montreal, Berlin and Brussels.

Swarm Intelligence — performing beneath a diagonal stage light.
STM 318

Swarm Intelligence

Two turntables, a mixer and a reverb pedal turn 36 records into a 124-minute pressure system. Noise reveals melody as rhythm gathers weight.

Elmer Davy — standing beside a brick wall in a grey sweatshirt.
STM 317

Elmer Davy

Elmer Davy maps a dark yet playful electro route through Spanish underground talent, Ombra memory, vinyl culture and Detroit-rooted machine funk.

NX1 — Surit and Samot seated together in a dark room.
STM 316

NX1

Barcelona duo NX1 step away from the obvious club grammar. An hour of slow weather where Drexciya, Coil, Doxa Sinistra and the records they listen to when no one is watching teach structure how to dissolve without leaving the room.

William Maybelline of QUAL performing live amid stage smoke.
Interview

QUAL — Romance Can Slay the Dragon

William Maybelline of QUAL on body, battle, Love Zone, old machines, romance as brutality, and staying true without kissing ass or crowd-pleasing.

Celldöd — editorial photograph
STM 315

Celldöd

Anders Karlsson maps the DIY, punky underside of Swedish electronic music — an all-vinyl excavation spanning Konduktör Rekords, Enhänta Bödlar, Twice A Man and beyond, processed live through hardware.

TRSSX — a long-exposure portrait with blurred light trails.
STM 314

TRSSX

TRSSX delivers an 86-minute all-vinyl mix across three turntables — a deep journey through industrial drone, polyrhythmic techno and dark ambient from the co-founder of Glasgow's EXIT club.

MITH-XX performing with hands over electronic instruments and cables in a dark room with subtle coloured reflections.
STM 313

MITH-XX

A monumental return to the source. MITH-XX constructs a 3-hour eulogy for a collapsing world—bridging Power Electronics roots with the rawest edges of the contemporary underground.

DYL in a dark jacket beside a softly shadowed wall, with a restrained blue horizontal film treatment.
STM 312

DYL

Eduard Costea breaks the silence with a raw live recording of unreleased material, weaving a timeless narrative of 170 BPM rhythms, colossal reverbs, and hypnotic 4x4 textures to mark the launch of Achordat.

Arigto duo in a black-and-white woodland portrait.
STM 311

Arigto

With STM 311, German duo Arigto explores the interspace between gentleness and distortion centered around their latest EP Persona.

WAJE performing at the decks in a grainy black-and-white photograph.
STM 305

WAJE

WAJE builds a one-off vinyl journey through electro-industrial, experimental music and unexpected connections between eras.

TIESE — Ex Nullo release artwork
Music

TIESE — Ex Nullo

Our first cassette release: hardware improvisation by TIESE, mastered by Daniele Antezza and closing with an Inner8 remix. S13001 · Edition of 100.

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