Neue Alchemy Launches AU79 Records in Under 24 Hours
Debut release from Vanta Noir drops on YouTube and DSPs. Next up: Lyon Drive — founder Isaiah Steinfeld returns to the mic. ALCHMY Coffee relaunches in parallel product sprint.
CHICAGO, Sept. 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In a coast-to-coast sprint from Fast Company's Innovation Festival in New York to Riot Fest in Chicago, Portland-based venture studio Neue Alchemy has officially launched AU79 Records, a new micro-label built to move at the speed of culture.
The label was fully operationalized in under 24 hours—distribution, site, creative, and release rollout included. Its debut release, Through the Static by Vanta Noir, is now live on YouTube, with DSP rollout (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon) continuing over the weekend.
"We didn't rush the art—we removed every excuse around it," said founder Isaiah Steinfeld. "AU79 is what happens when a venture studio launches a label with the same speed and soul we give our startups."
Studio-Built. Lot-Inspired.
AU79 draws direct inspiration from Warner Bros. Discovery's 'Innovation on the Lot', where Steinfeld was a featured speaker. That program focused on IP infrastructure, licensing systems, and modular distribution—all core to AU79's model.
Each release is:
- IP-first & licensing-ready
- Format-agnostic (streaming, video, vinyl, sync)
- Powered by Neue Alchemy's cultural design engine
First Release: Through the Static — Vanta Noir
Vanta Noir riffs off Vantablack—the darkest black ever created—with Noir adding cinematic, romantic tension. The band blends dark synth-pop and new wave with punk DNA, wrapping it all in haunted textures and macabre visual language.
Through the Static is their debut—a midnight-drive record for people who still love melody but don't trust it anymore.
Think dark synth-pop and new wave, wrapped in moody, macabre vibes. Vanta Noir sounds like Bunnydrums meets The Cure, with a dash of Misfits chaos and Alkaline Trio emotional rawness.
It's melodic and shadowed—more cinematic crawl than punk sprint. A soundtrack for midnight drives, soft destruction, and haunted neon.
Tracklist:
Now Live: YouTube
Streaming: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon → Rolling out
Vinyl: Limited-run pressing (Winter 2025)
Next Drop: Lyon Drive — Punk Roots Reconnected
Sometimes the most important conversations happen twenty years later.
For Isaiah Steinfeld and Daniel Valery, that conversation became Lyon Drive—a project that feels less like a reunion and more like destiny finally syncing up.
Steinfeld leads vocals, guitar, and bass. Valery brings dual mastery on lead guitar and drums. The result is a dual-engine band powered by the kind of creative telepathy only forged on the road—in vans, VFW halls, and the blurry in-between.
They first played together in Modern Day Arcade, part of Florida's early 2000s alt/punk scene. Steinfeld would go on to anchor Daeava, a melodic hardcore outfit that earned its place sharing stages with Misery Signals and 7 Angels 7 Plagues. But while he left the stage, he never stopped building.
His path moved through startups, systems, and storytelling—culminating in the launch of Neue Alchemy, a cultural R&D studio designing post-AI brands and rituals. He's since advised Fortune 100s, built early-stage ventures, and returned to the mic not as an echo of who he was—but as a more complete version of who he became.
Meanwhile, Valery stayed in the music world—perfecting his craft, drumming with Suck Brick Kid, Go Rydell, and Crisis in Hollywood. His current band, Suck Brick Kid, has become a staple on the festival circuit—performing at The Fest, SXSW, and Warped Tour, while touring with Unwritten Law, Set Your Goals, and more.
Fittingly, both kept showing up at SXSW for years—Steinfeld speaking on AI and IP; Valery performing on stage—before finally reconnecting inside Neue Alchemy's studio model to make something together again.
Lyon Drive lives in the space between Wonder Years anthems and American Football's quiet unraveling—with the vocal honesty of Polar Bear Club and the storytelling depth of The Weakerthans, all without posture or pretense.
The name is a nod to 9303 Lyon Drive, Marty McFly's fictional address in Back to the Future. It's about the streets that shape us, the loops we can't escape, and what it means to go back—not to relive, but to reclaim.
AU79 Records is an extension of Neue Alchemy's lab—and Lyon Drive is what it sounds like when myth, memory, and velocity collide.
ALCHMY Coffee Relaunches
In parallel with the label launch, ALCHMY Coffee—another Neue Alchemy venture—dropped a new website, two new small-batch roasts, and updated field gear while Steinfeld was on the ground at the Innovation Festival in NYC.
ALCHMY was nominated for "AI Design", and Neue Alchemy for "On the Rise" at Fast Company's 2025 Innovation by Design Awards.
"It was incredibly humbling to be considered and in the same room as the winners and honorees like Ralph Lauren, New York Times, The North Face, Canva, Herman Miller and others." - Steinfeld
New Roasts:
- Trailhead — Medium roast, earthy, designed for early rituals
- Maastricht Blue — Dark roast, bold, inspired by deep-focus states
Explore: alchmycoffee.com
About AU79
AU79 is the atomic symbol for gold—and a label philosophy built for post-AI culture.
We use new tools to power speed and execution while keeping the grit and soul at the forefront.
As a venture-powered imprint of Neue Alchemy, AU79 exists to:
- Launch music as myth
- Treat memory as modular emotional IP
- Operate at founder speed without sacrificing emotional fidelity
Site: au79records.com
Studio: neuealchemy.com
"We used to print flyers and burn demos. Now we launch records with vinyl, visuals, and velocity. The soul hasn't changed. We just move faster now." — Steinfeld
Contact: press@neuealchemy.com
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SOURCE Neue Alchemy