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.
Robert Skrzyński traces a flexible route from kinetic electronics to a slow, absorbing close. Twenty-four selections connect Eastern European experimentation with Deathprod, Robert Lippok and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, crossing techno, ambient and traditional forms.
Fifteen personal recordings bring cello, looping and delicate electronic processing into one unfolding sequence, gathering remixes, unreleased pieces and live performances around the grain of acoustic sound.
Machinefabriek lets eight compositions unfold in full, finding a shared stillness in spacious drones, field recordings and blurred melodic detail. Brian Eno, Steve Roden and Jim O’Rourke enter an unhurried, deeply attentive listening space.
Mike Shiflet traces thirteen years of noise and experimental music in chronological order. Kevin Drumm, Fennesz, Jason Kahn and Prurient form a carefully shaped progression of tone, texture and emotional intensity.
Pillowdiver steps away from his own ambient practice to revisit the guitars and voices of the 1990s. Twelve selections connect shoegaze, post-rock and indie music through a patiently sustained emotional thread.
DJ Ilmajaam compresses twenty-nine discoveries into a fast-moving, cinematic sequence. Biosphere, Library Tapes, Gimmik and Deaf Center trace the Tallinn selector’s broad musical world through intimate melodies and restless electronic detail.
Talvihorros brings seventeen records into a cinematic sequence of drifting atmospheres, voices and submerged rhythms. Two of his own compositions sit among Demdike Stare, Neil Young, Colleen and Edgard Varèse, revealing a wide and quietly connected musical world.
Grant Evans, also known as Nova Scotian Arms, gathers ten drone and ambient works into a slow-moving landscape of tape rustle, noisy horizons and quietly returning melodic detail.
Dale Lloyd brings together ancient musical traditions, film scores and electronic experimentation. Sixteen vivid selections unfold as a patient cinematic journey, drawing connections across countries, eras and ways of listening.
Anders Ilar opens his private library of experimental dance music, bringing early industrial records, distorted rhythms and glitched electronics into one restless, precisely mixed sequence.
Leonardo Rosado traces a quiet path through ambient textures, intimate voices and restless strings: nine selections that move from cinematic stillness to an unsettled, tender close.
Lawrence English connects seventeen records without settling into a single musical language. Archaic traditions, unstable rhythms, intimate voices and guitar-driven intensity form a kaleidoscopic map of the Room40 founder’s listening.
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