{"id":19804,"date":"2026-05-04T13:53:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=19804"},"modified":"2026-05-04T13:53:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:53:02","slug":"a-place-both-wonderful-and-strange-returns-to-life-with-matter-and-desire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=19804","title":{"rendered":"a place both wonderful and strange\u00a0Returns To Life With\u00a0Matter And Desire"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/MATTER.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19805\" style=\"width:450px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/MATTER.png 700w, https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/MATTER-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/MATTER-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Dark electronic duo,&nbsp;<strong>a place both wonderful and strange<\/strong>&nbsp;has just resurrected an eight year old album that almost never was.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Matter And Desire<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;is about ecology. But in every song it\u2019s the moment right before something changes forever. In some cases, it\u2019s for the worst. In some cases, it\u2019s for the better,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Matter And Desire<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;is the staring down an apocalypse of the natural, the political, and the personal, and saying \u201cwhat am I going to do now because I can\u2019t simply do nothing?&#8221; It&#8217;s the decision to choose a path that might, for once, lead out of darkness. Then in the next song it\u2019s a choice to potentially go the other way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The band states, &#8220;We set out to make this album 8 years ago, and it simply did not happen. But there was never a reason, or really a desire, to finish this album. The album never went away though. We kept collecting sounds, lyrics, and even full songs. Maybe we were done with&nbsp;<strong>a place both wonderful and strange<\/strong>. But we had all these songs, ideas and sounds and they would not leave us alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2025 we finally got into a studio and finished these songs. Everything clicked, finally, and we realized we had needed to become different people in our own lives and as a creative pair, to ever get these songs to be realized and authentic.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Matter And Desire<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;is the sound of that moment held still, the breath before the break, the point where everything could go either way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Matter And Desire<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;is available on CD and on all major digital outlets worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"nv-iframe-embed\"><iframe title=\"a place both wonderful and strange - It&#039;s Not That Bad, Muffin (Official Music Video)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EsYpH186UfQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>a place both wonderful and strange<\/strong>&nbsp;is the New York-based dark electronic project of Russ Marshalek and Laura Hajek, who\u2019ve worked together as a creative duo since 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Taken from a line in Twin Peaks,&nbsp;<strong>a place both wonderful and strange<\/strong>&nbsp;makes deeply human, smeared and smudged darkwave with feet both on the dance floor and a locked, darkened room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They\u2019ve toured both an ever-evolving visceral live show and an audio-visual soundtracking of Twin Peaks\u2019s Laura Palmer\u2019s tragic and horrifying final moments titled \u201cKeys Open Doors: The Hidden Life of Laura Palmer\u201d for a decade now. The Laura Palmer-themed show saw its very final performance in April, at the gorgeous and esteemed venue The Bell House in Brooklyn, following the passing of David Lynch. Their last releases were a pair of EPs, a covers record titled&nbsp;<strong><em>Coverups<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;and a collection titled&nbsp;<strong><em>The City Smells Like Cat Spit<\/em><\/strong>, both released in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both Russ and Laura maintain careers outside of&nbsp;<strong>a place both wonderful and strange<\/strong>, in art and otherwise. Russ is a writer, DJ and ? of the DJ collective, ADVENTURE[s], the creators of \u201cThis Party Is Killing You!&#8221;: The Robyn Party\u201d, the internationally acclaimed pop night that precedes all other nights of its kind. Laura is also a collaborator on &#8220;This Party Is Killing You!&#8221; and maintains her own art practice and solo music and performance as Edith Pop and other monikers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Follow &amp; support\u00a0<strong>a place both wonderful and strange:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><br><a href=\"https:\/\/remissionentertainment.bandcamp.com\/album\/matter-and-desire\">https:\/\/remissionentertainment.bandcamp.com\/album\/matter-and-desire<\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/aplaceboth\/\">https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/aplaceboth\/<\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/aplaceboth\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/aplaceboth<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: a place both wonderful and strange\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/artist\/6OBRetZqPLUNgxHcRJ3eWu?utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dark electronic duo,&nbsp;a place both wonderful and strange&nbsp;has just resurrected an eight year old album that almost never was.&nbsp;&nbsp; Matter And Desire&nbsp;is about ecology. But in every song it\u2019s the moment right before something changes forever. In some cases, it\u2019s for the worst. In some cases, it\u2019s for the better, Matter And Desire&nbsp;is the staring&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=19804\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">a place both wonderful and strange\u00a0Returns To Life With\u00a0Matter And Desire<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19806,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19804\/revisions\/19806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}