Sound as research, selection and a living archive.
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.
Audra Festival / Kaunas, 2022Photo by Vytenis Sidabras
Digital Tsunami / rotating frameSūpynės Festival / filmed performance, 2019
Berlin Atonal / 2014Holotone Showcase / Berlin, 2016Space Love / Arma17, 2014Polar Inertia / KablysUMBRA / Kablys, 2014Undogmatisch / Berlin, 2015Audra Festival / 2022Sūpynės Festival / 2019Digital 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.
Justinas Mikulskis as a guest: conversations about making music, listening and building Secret Thirteen. DJ sets and his own editorial work are archived separately.
Rare minimal wave records, borrowed tapes and fragments of film dialogue explore isolation and failed communication, with intimate voices and rough-edged synthesizers carrying a quietly unsettling narrative.
Prepared piano, blurred guitars and electronic pulses move through luminous, intimate spaces, linking ambient composition and shoegaze in a sequence whose emotional weight emerges from gradual transitions.
The filmmaker and composer on silence, Showing Light and the city as a living organism. Ran Slavin moves between sound, cinema, technology and the subconscious.
A live sequence of oscillators, samplers and analogue synthesizers turns precise signals into restless physical rhythms, revealing how small improvisations reshape the geometry of industrial electronics.
The artist, writer and curator on political beginnings, studio practice and the life of an image. An illustrated 2013 conversation about making work, finding recognition and keeping curiosity open.
Graham Lambkin on musical beginnings, unexpected discoveries and the physical life of Kye records. The original 2013 conversation accompanies his eleven-track selection.
The Berlin artist on turning ordinary materials into moving installations. Air, light and physical computing meet in this 2013 conversation, illustrated with the works and films discussed in the interview.
The composer behind The Sight Below on attentive listening, The Unintentional Sea and curating Substrata. The complete 2013 conversation, followed by separately dated 2026 reflections.
Futurist speech, musique concrète and modern noise collide with industrial rhythm and jungle, tracing a path from early sonic experiments to dense contemporary production without losing its dramatic tension.
Old songs, abstract electronics and unreleased collaborations drift through a dense, dreamlike sequence, where voices and slow-moving rhythms repeatedly dissolve into unfamiliar shapes.
A relaxed turntable session preserves the crackle of old records as devotional jazz, choral music and acoustic experimentation unfold, finding unexpected affinities through patient, unforced transitions.
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