2 Timothy 1:6
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God,
which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
House of Ember is the passion project of composer and producer, Edward M. Melendez. Its purposes is to be a worship, music recording and praise ministry. House of Ember is a collective of worshippers, songwriters, producers, engineers, composers and lyricists, who have spent years writing and producing worship music for others. As the Lord has lead to this new path to create and produce our own sound and music. We hope to make it available to His worshippers who desire to honor God though praise and adoration. Ultimately we are called to sing to the Lord a new song. Psalm 96:1 This is our desire.
As House of Ember moves forward on it’s journey in producing more music, its focus will be to strives to create, inspire and offer God’s church new music to praise Him with. Our love and passion for new music and decades of experience in all different types of denominational and corporate worship, we hope help us to connect and inspire others. House of Ember looks to cultivate its own unique voice. We look to do this with an eclectic influence of styles which spans many years and with a reverence for the praise and worship music that has the proceeded us. The vision is to return to the very basics of what worshippers are called to do. That is, to Worship in Spirit and in Truth. John 4:24
House of Ember seeks to be lead and inspired by God’s Holy Spirit. Seeking the richness of God’s Word to help pen the music and songs of praise. Grounded in the deep theological foundation of who God is, and remaining steadfast in our purpose as those who desire to follow Him. This ministry’s mission is to use music to help build a culture of worship and bring individuals of all demographics and denominations to the one purpose which we should all be able to agree upon. That is, to worship the one and true living God of the universe. Using the incredible gift of music and lyrics to help communicate and share the message of redemption and forgiveness. John 4:23
RECORDING HISTORY
One of the earliest projects dates back to 1999 at Calvary Chapel of Huntington Beach, California. The album, All of My Hungry Heart was on of the first self-produced works by Edward Melendez. A Christian-themed praise and worship album. This would be the first project where Edward would try his hand at producing and arranging an entire project himself. As well as performing all of the album’s instrumentation.
The desire was to also include some very talented vocalists to perform on the album. These vocalists would include Rayanne Allmain, Kathleen Leatherman, and Bethany Welsh.
All of My Hungry Heart, was comprised of all original compositions. One such contribution, “Have I Told You” was written by first time songwriter Billy Bird. The song “In Your Courts” was written by Meg Bannerman and would be Ed and Meg’s first collaborated effort. Of course, Edward would add his own unique touch of orchestrations to complete the song’s final arrangement. For the song “Jesus, My Redeemer”, a special vocal performance was provided by the Calvary Chapel Children’s Choir.
The album itself was really an experiment, as various parts of certain songs were being written during the actual production of the album. This allowed for creativity to drive the direction of each track.
For all who participated in the making of All of My Hungry Heart, they each had the opportunity to contribute creatively to the album’s production. This album would also take full advantage of the new advances in sampled instruments and song sequencing. These tools would be used to their fullest potential in completing the final product.
The second album project. House of the Risen Son was a worship project which was conceived and executed over a long period of time. Edward would oversee the song choices and their arrangements by selecting a number of classic worship songs from what is fondly referred to by Edward as, “The Oden Fong Days”.
Oden Fong was Associate Pastor at Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, California. Oden, would lead both the music and worship as well as the Bible Study on Tuesday evenings in the early 1990s. The worship during this time was a great influence and inspiration. It helped to cultivate the style of worship Edward has since utilized for his own worship leading.
The biggest challenge for the album was writing new arrangements for many of these familiar songs. The job was to meticulously go over each of these newly updated arrangements and select instrumentation for the individual songs. It would be a tremendous undertaking.
The end result guided the project in finding the perfect balance between allowing each of the selected songs to present their message while still showcasing their beautiful melodies to their fullest potential. The project would also add its own signature touch to these familiar tunes, adding to and orchestrating each part in order to maintain the song’s integrity while expanding the song with a more contemporary sound.
The vocalists who participated on House of The Risen Son were: Steven Smith, Sherwin Quezon, Janice Devries, and Robyn Samuelson.
The third album, to be produced was recorded in the summer of 2011. This was the next full scale worship music project since 2005. The entire project had been inspired by Edward’s recent move to the state of Montana, where he took a position as full-time worship pastor at Hannaford Street Bible Church.
This album would be a gift to those attending Hannaford Street’s annual Pastor’s Conference. The conference itself attracted pastors from all over the country looking to be renewed and refreshed. It was the Conference’s 15th anniversary. So it was believed, what better gift to give pastors and their fellowship than a worship CD of original inspired worship music.
The challenge was monumental, but there was no doubt that the new worship team could manage this undertaking. When all was said and done, it was determined that it was possible to complete it under the time frame set.
The project was also very fortunate in that they had a very gifted group of individuals in their worship ministry. Even having some songwriters collaborating together for the first time was a great help for the album. The members of the Hannaford Street worship team were given only six months to write, arrange, produce and record an all original worship album. Time was certainly not on their side, and of course having some members on the team who had never even experience the process of recording an entire album before was daunting.
Things were finally set into motion. The team had a working time frame to meet and it was a pretty straight forward goal. The album would include all original music and would be preformed by the worship team itself.
Everyone involved in the project really stepped up by offering their gifts of time, music, lyrics, voices and instruments to help create one incredible worship album. The final product speaks for itself. It includes a diverse style of musical influences and captures sincere hearts, worshipping, praising and pouring out their emotions through songs of praise and adoration.
Additional songwriters include: Amber Olsson, Jake Stoneking, Gary Blom, David Perrigan, Jessica House.