Kelly David

Ambient electronic artist based in Colorado, USA.

Born in 1954 in Washington, D.C., Kelly David’s first musical efforts widely encompassed the classical and musical theater realms, playing piano in grade school and later, French horn in various orchestras. Kelly’s first public performances of his classical compositions took place during high school, inspired by Frank Zappa, Stravinsky, Bartok, Copeland, Holst, and other 20th century masters.

After high school, Kelly went on to major in music composition at the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. Intending to write the great American symphony, Kelly instead stumbled on the two events that would later shape his life: the ARP 2600 synthesizer and the campus radio station.

The synthesizer lead Kelly into the world of electronic music. When presenting his sophomore recital, which consisted of electronic and acoustic sounds manipulated by tape loops, Kelly was soundly booed by the academic audience. Kelly knew then that he had found his calling.

At the same time, doing a regular disc jockey shift on the campus radio station convinced Kelly that radio was more interesting than music school. He turned to his energies to cracking the world of commercial radio. Soon after leaving school, he landed his first job at an FM station in Louisville, Kentucky and embarked on a 17 year career as a disc jockey and program director. Beginning first at progressive rock stations and then switching over to 'Top Forty' formats, Kelly’s radio career landed him at major stations in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, Baltimore, Dallas, San Diego and Honolulu.

Along his radio travels, Kelly picked up a law degree from Temple University in Philadelphia and exited the radio business just as industry consolidation squeezed out the remaining independents. Throughout his radio days, Kelly would dabble with synthesizers searching for a direction, always influenced by the deeper electronic music he found in the so-called 'New Age' bins of the record stores. Moving to Colorado in 1996, and captivated by the light and space of the West, Kelly began collecting instruments and equipment for the Edge, his personal recording studio. That path led to Kelly’s 2002 debut album, Broken Voyage, an ambient-electro-tribal journey to the South Pacific, and beyond.