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.
A collage drawn from vinyl, CD, cassette and digital sources traces the links between industrial noise, fractured techno and ambient space, layering 59 records into an evolving rhythmic architecture.
Cinematic atmosphere gives way to low-end pressure as architectural recordings, analogue noise and fractured rhythms overlap, connecting 25 works by peers and collaborators into a shifting soundscape.
Live instrumentation, field recordings and unstable percussion dissolve into a continuous nocturnal drift, bringing private recordings and forthcoming Miasmah material into contact with enduring influences.
Rimantas Lukavičius on the decisions behind digital filmmaking, creative integrity and working with global brands. A 2013 look inside the Vilnius studio, accompanied by selected KORB films.
On anger, beauty, self-imposed limits and the meaning a sound can carry. Haus Arafna’s complete 2013 conversation is followed by a separate 2026 editorial and dated recordings.
Damian Marhulets turns 56 fragments into a dreamlike, non-linear narrative: experimental turntablism, electroacoustic music and unexpected humour open onto a world of shifting identities.
Uhuruku builds a personal journey through industrial rhythms, dub and psychedelic terrain, layering records from his collection into music for restless wanderers.
Haubrecht Gumpmann trusts two turntables, intuition and the unruly possibilities of jazz, threading spiritual and improvised records into a spontaneous, deeply human journey.
Nikodem Langfuhr’s Ballet of Violence finds the mischievous, alluring side of darkness in a selection that moves freely between drone, post-punk and uneasy songcraft.
The Brooklyn artist on cutting graphite drawings into paper lace, working with galleries and the line between drawing and sculpture. An illustrated 2013 conversation about gesture, complexity and the work of making.
Alan Dunn layers 55 works around silence, water, revolution, grey, catastrophe, background and numbers: a one-hour soundtrack intended for listening in motion.
Seven then-unreleased productions thread through a live-recorded selection of fractured techno, where micro-sampling, rolling percussion and precise transitions connect personal experiments with club records.
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