Reduction Plan's music comes from within solitude's frigid embrace. "I will never get what I want," broods frontman Daniel Manning on self-released debut, Paradise. The heavily reverberated breaths and ominous atmosphere that open Reduction Plan's latest full-length album, Somewhere, evoke that same sense of solitude, one that is almost palpable. Pulling from 80s goth, 90s shoegaze and industrial, and the anti-folk tendencies of acts like Grouper and Mount Eerie, Reduction Plan uses both noise and space to illustrate the power of silence. A swell of synths, pulsing drum machines, and haunting murmurs is the foundation upon which the project draws its sound. With Somewhere, Manning takes a leap forward in both songwriting and production. Recorded and mixed entirely independently, the record’s 10 tracks are more fleshed out than anything the project has released to date. A testament to this is “On Your Own”, a re-recorded and re-worked version of a track that initially appeared on Reduction Plan’s debut, Paradise. Side-A closer “Julia” is driven by waves of synths that would feel right at home on a Disintegration cut, pushing the song to a powerful climax. Meanwhile, opener “Without An End” is a cacophonous goth-rock anthem built upon an intoxicating drum-machine groove. Somewhere is Manning’s third full-length under the Reduction Plan moniker, following the Child of Light EP, which saw him branching out stylistically to collaborate with fellow musicians. On the project’s first two full-lengths, 2015’s Paradise and 2016’s Shade, Manning’s compositions were frigid, harsh, and unrelenting. Here, the songs let the light in; blossoming into lush, melancholic pieces that maintain the bite of the project’s roots. The majority of the record was written shortly after Manning graduated from college, and deals with all the feelings of displacement, discontent, and dissatisfaction that followed. Somewhere represents a seemingly intangible sense of comfort and belonging that Manning searches for throughout the album’s brooding tracks. Although a solo endeavor in concept, Manning is accompanied live by Luis Durango, who breathes new energy into the songs on second-guitar and synth.Together, the two have shared the stage with acts such as Xiu Xiu, Boy Harsher, Planning For Burial, Torres and many more.