Edward Hamel is a composer and audio engineer currently residing in Chicago. He graduated magna cum laude from The University of California San Diego and Columbia College Chicago.
As a composer, he has been awarded international commissions from organizations such as the MATA Festival, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Venice Biennale and The New York Youth Symphony. His works Gray Neon Life can be heard on asinglewordisnotenough from Seth Parker Woods (Confront Recordings) and Pull the Name from My Tongue on script-rescript from Rachel Beetz (Populist Records.) He has been fortunate to have musicians/ensembles premiere his work throughout North America, Europe and Asia. In spring of 2020, Edward will be presenting his saxophone quartet Butchered and Consumed… at the NUNC!4 New Music Conference and Festival.
As a freelance audio engineer, Edward has worked with groups in studios throughout Chicago as well as his private mixing studio Soft Pyramid. Furthermore, he is a co-founder of the Chicago based record label SCRIPTS. The label’s focus is to produce, promote and archive music taking influence from contemporary concert music, noise, ambient and electronic composition while also beginning to focus on publishing books from writers and artists of various mediums.
As a musician, Edward is the leading member of the group ONLY. Collaborating with evolving musicians, ONLY’s music has a foundation of lyrically delicate, lush, enigmatic songwriting combined with elements of heavy shoegaze, post-rock and dark ambient textures. He is also the drummer of heavy music group End It All.