Krosswindz-Dhowa The album for 2006/07,bengali rock music with world fusion overtones.
Primarily a progressive rock/fusion band,now focusing on world music and soulful songs,lyric oriented.Professionally performing concerts all over USA and the Indian subcontinent for the last seventeen years. Krosswindz is a crosspollination of music of india with the sounds of folk traditions from around the world.The result a potpouri of sounds deeply rooted in the soil that touches the heart and speaks the common language of humankind.
Music Style-
world,folk,ambient progressive fusion
Musical Influences
pat metheny,pink floyd,pandit bhimsen joshi,joni mitchell,basudev baul,ghulam ali,eric johnson,paban das baul,sting,nitin sawhney,jimi hendrix etc
Similar Artists-
suzanne vega,protima barua(folk singer),yossou n dour,sting,cranberries,santana,susheela raman etc
Artist History
band was formed in 1990,has toured all over the sub-continent playing at all major college festivals and stadium concerts.Krosswindz is renowned for the musical dexterity of legendary guitar player Vikramjit Banerjee(tuki) who is the leading guitar player in India and also the band leader.The band is busy gigging all over the country along with recording new material for their forthcoming album.
The band has performed and collaborated with internationally reputed names like HERBIE HANCOCK(USA),SKY HIGH(SWEDEN),RAG FOUNDATION(ENGLAND WALES),TIZIAN JOST(GERMANY),PANDIT RAMESH MISHRA(INDIAN SARENGI PLAYER OF INTERNATIONAL REPUTE),SANJAY MISHRA(CLASSICAL GUITARIST USA),THE JAZZ AMBASSADORS(USA),DAVID DYKSTRA(THE BAUTISA BAND SAN-FRANSISCO),PABAN DAS BAUL.
The album TRIBUTE TO ERIC JOHNSON (GRAMMY winning guitarist from Texas)features the dazzling guitar work by Tuki(KROSSWINDZ) on the track SPACE GUITAR.The album THE MUSIC OF THE GLOBE features two tracks by KROSSWINDZ namely ONE WORLD and MAHUT BONDHU which was re-released in USA by indipendant Washington based label JOE ANTHONY PRODUCTIONS,this album has gone on to become a hot seller from amazon and other online merchants apart from being popular at conventional music stores like TOWER.
Krosswindz has been a pioneer in the band movement in West Bengal and the first bengali project/collaboration with GAUTAM CHATTERJEE(MONI MAMA)of MOHINER GHORAGULI yielded the anthemic hit BHEBE DEKHECHO KI.Released in 1994/5 the album AABAR BOCHOR KOOREE POREY has become a staple amongst music lovers.
The collaboration happened when Gautam suggested KROSSWINDZ record and perform 1 track he had written and set tune to in 1993 and eventually the studio sessions yeilded the astonishing new bengali side of KROSSWINDZ.this song has now been remade by Bollywood in the movie GANGSTER and a hindi version is doing the rounds on all music channels.
Krosswindz has evolved over the early years from being a covers only rock band to a progressive world/fusion band and has gained repute all over the world for its pathbreaking new sound and fresh approach to music.In the early years the band struggled financially a the number of shows were less but the reputation of the band as being a stupendous live act spread and gigs picked up by the mid nineties and nowadays on an average the band has ten to twelve shows a month compared to twelve shows a year in 1990.
The music of krosswindz has been featured in numerous documentary films and commercials.Recently the international award winning film THE WAY BACK HOME by film maker SUPRIYO SEN featured the vocals of CHANDRANI(KROSSWINDZ) prominently as a background score for the film.
The music of KROSSWINDZ is being aired by all the major FM stations in CALCUTTA namely RADIO MIRCHI,RED FM,AAMAR FM and ALL INDIA RADIO.In AUSTRALIA pbs FM in MELBOURNE is playing the song JHIKO JHIKO by KROSSWINDZ on their show GLOBAL VILLAGE hosted by ROGER HOLDSWORTH.
KROSSWINDZ has been on many major national and international TV shows and reputed production houses like the BBC and MTV have covered KROSSWINDZ on innumerable occassions.Krosswindz has just completed shooting for a feature part in a telefilm by noted Calcutta actor/director parambrata chatterjee where the soundtrack is the music from the latest album of KROSSWINDZ-MISIKI MISIKI.
The band also appears regularly on game shows and interviews on popular Indian TV channels like zee bangla(hau mau khau),Tara Muzik(TAKE A BREAK),Sangeet Bangla(metro musik)etc.Channel S in the UK has telecast a documentary featuring KROSSWINDZ.
KROSSWINDZ has one of the highest record sales in the regional market and has had superhit albums like ONE WORLD,JHIKO JHIKO and MISIKI MISIKI selling thousands of units.Presently Krosswindz is signed to Indian label SAGARIKA MUSIC.
KROSSWINDZ has been on the charts at broadjam.com numerous times and a huge number of people have downloaded the band's music from free sites like mp3.com
ONE WORLD has entered the Earth Top 10 at Broadjam!
ONE WORLD has entered the Production - Mid Tempo Top 10 at Broadjam!
ONE WORLD has entered the Pop Top 10 at Broadjam!
ONE WORLD has entered the Broadjam #1 Songs Top 10 at Broadjam!
ONE WORLD has entered the Production - Female Vocals Top 10 at
Broadjam!
Krosswindz's rendition of the song TANGRA TOBU KATON JAYE from
the album JHIKO JHIKO has been nominated by an
AMERICAN company called JPF(CD BABY) in the BEST FOLK
SONG category of their music awards
http://www.jpfolks.com/MusicAwards/2006/SongNominees.html
Krosswindz has one of the largest ammount of fans in the Indian music scene that spread all over the sub-continent and even to other parts of the world like in the USA,UK,MEXICO,IRELAND following the band avidly and listening with admiration.tower records,cd baby and apple i tunes also stock a healthy quota of the music of KROSSWINDZ and the number of fans is growing each day.
Group Members
vikramjit(tuki)lead guitar,dotara,khamak backing vocals/songwriter producer
chandrani-lead vocals/songwriter,percussion
ratanjit-keyboards/guitar
Guest musicians perform with the band from time to time keeping the sonic spectrum diverse and ecclectic.
Instruments
guitar,nylon string guitar,mandolin,dotara(indian folk instrument),dhol,djembe,khol,drums,congas,timbales,cabasa,guiros,triangles,shakers,bass guitar,keyboards,
Albums(discography)
krosswindz singles- bmg crescendo india,1994
krosswindz poth geche benke-sagarika,1996
krosswindz one world-kosmic music,2002
krosswindz bhebe dekhecho ki-kosmic music,2002
krosswindz jhiko jhiko-sagaika,2004
krosswindz misiki misiki-sagarika,2005
KROSSWINDZ DHOWA-Sagarika,2006
Compilations- aabar bochor kooree porey mohiner ghoraguli,1995
khyapar gaan mohiner ghoraguli,1999
moni chara shunno laagey various artists,2002
THE MUSIC OF THE GLOBE-JOE ANTHONY PRODUCTIONS(USA),2003
Tribute to Eric Johnson various artists, produced-VAL SERRIE TEXAS USA,2004
Press Reviews
"the first band from the eastern region of india to come out with an album of original english compositions"-The Telegraph Calcutta
"one world tops local charts"times of india calcutta
"The evening of January 16 was electrifying, with JUST, a band formed by JU students, belting out popular numbers. But it was Krosswindz, playing to the galleries of over 4,000, that was a smash hit with a two-and-a-half-hour gig."the Telegraph Calcutta
Winds of cross culture-Krosswindz has absorbed jazz, Irish folk, hip-hop, funk and Indian music to create a style of their own which they call ‘World Rock’. A few copies of their recent release One World are available in big music stores in Bangalore, writes Michael Patrao
“I don’t want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.” These words of Mahatma Gandhi (said in a different context) may well be the description of the Kolkata band Krosswindz.The album "ONE WORLD" is doing very well in Kolkata and a few copies did manage to land in Bangalore. Priced at Rs 125 a CD you may find it in one of the bigger music stores in Bangalore. -DECCAN HERALD
Additional Info
email the band at-- tukiguitarman@yahoo.com
tukisampleman@rediffmail.com
www.krosswindz.com
www.cdbaby.com/krosswindz
www.soundclick.com/krosswindz
Location
calcutta, west bengal - India
contact-vikramjit banerjee
flat 1b kanak apartments,
174/10 nsc bose road,calcutta 700040.India
phone-
+91-09830156148,
+91-033-24814125,
+91-033-24813877
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