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.
Two hours connect musique concrète, hip-hop and shadowy electronics, with Daphne Oram reworkings and Touchin’ Bass connections threading through a restless sequence of 51 records, voices and cinematic fragments.
Chris Douglas on Bytreqw, dreams, presets and the relationship between music and lived experience. The full 2013 conversation, with a separately credited 2026 archive layer.
Treated guitars, dreamlike vocals and analogue electronics connect 25 records across industrial music, psychedelia and ambient, tracing a patient passage from uneasy introspection to the pull of nostalgia.
Ancient Methods reveals a quieter, deeply personal side through 16 records. Acoustic composition, ambient electronics and dark folk carry the intensity of his techno into unexpected forms.
Andrea Napoli on the shared sound, changing catalogue and independent spirit of Avant! Records. The original 2013 conversation comes with a fourteen-track label mix.
Italian experimental music opens onto psychedelia, early electronics and new wave, with Battiato, Grossi and Stratos threading through a selection that reveals the formative influences behind the sound artist.
Five hardware improvisations weave through percussion studies, tape experiments and jazz-inflected electronics, turning 37 selections into a restless collage of shifting rhythms and unexpected sonic affinities.
Expansive ambient melodies meet understated bass rhythms in a selection shaped by A Strangely Isolated Place, introducing three Places Series exclusives before closing with two intimate readings of Rhubarb.
Biosphere dedicates a selection of 16 vinyl records to Pete Namlook. Early electronics, industrial atmospheres and resilient melodies evoke the music that first connected their listening worlds.
Fifteen personal experiments interlace with electronic, rock and classical records in a remembrance of his father, where fractured beats and intricate textures open onto voices, melody and shared musical memory.
Brock Van Wey’s candid account of leaving the USA for China, refusing genre and making music from necessity. The complete 2013 interview, followed by a separate 2026 editorial.
Loscil follows his formative listening beyond ambient electronics: fourteen pieces of film music, acoustic composition and early electronic experimentation become a quietly cinematic hour.
Privacy
Your choices.
Saved stays on your device. Statistics and external players need your permission.
