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.
Minimal soundscapes, dub pulses and restless electronics accumulate across 31 layered records, including early glimpses of AGF’s Source Voice and the expansive William Basinski collaboration Aurora Liminalis.
Orphx connect 32 tracks across industrial, ambient and techno. Over 90 minutes, shifting rhythms and densely sculpted textures reveal the discoveries that shaped the Canadian duo’s sound.
Twenty-four seven-inch records trace a personal route through African funk, garage psychedelia, soul and traditional music, with worn grooves and unexpected affinities giving distant recordings an intimate scale.
Two hours of electronic music move between early synthesizer experiments, machine funk and digital abstraction, tracing the character of specific instruments alongside unreleased work from the duo’s wider circle.
Matthew Samways on independence, musical energy and the challenges of running a label from Canada. The original 2012 conversation accompanies a twelve-track Electric Voice Records selection.
Eleven electroacoustic works unfold through sustained tones, live instrumentation and minute changes in texture, placing Lucier, Radigue and Parmegiani beside newer experiments in resonance and electronic space.
Greek composition and contemporary sound experiments meet across thirteen records, connecting Xenakis and Christou with improvised textures, field recordings and fractured electronics from the Athens underground.
A survey of Editions Mego and its offshoots sets abrasive synthesis against melodic patterns, noise and ritual song, gathering sixteen releases into a portrait of the label’s restless musical direction in 2012.
Rich Oddie and Christina Sealey trace the meeting of industrial music and techno, improvised performance and the transformation of everyday tension into sound.
Dub, acid and ambient records dissolve into exclusive edits and improvisations, threaded with Stockholm rain and Bergman dialogue. Analog delay gives the shifting collage a continuous sense of depth and motion.
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