Vikramjit Banerjee(Tuki) – Guitarist, composer and leader for Krosswindz the premier Rock/Fusion band from India.
When a star dances on the horizon and the sparks light up the spirit, it opens the gates of a dam that lets that special stream flow.... a musician is born. Such is the fire that glows in the heart of Tuki, always trying to tap that special musical stream for inspiration and fulfillment
Youtube Channel
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History:
If there ever was a person totally addicted and immensely passionate about his work then it would be none other than Tuki. His life has been a living example of dedication, honesty and integrity to his art form that is music. Inspired flights of melodic guitar solos to delicately arrpegiated chords or wildly screaming harmonics are all bread and butter for him. A total master of his instrument, playing since the tender age of four, he has studied nearly all forms of music and is currently mastering the DOTARA an Indian fretless 4 stringed instrument.Composing songs like "Silences" and "Too Tired To Talk" for his band KROSSWINDZ being examples of the poet hidden within him.There are innumerable songs within him just bursting out to be recorded and shared with the world. He dreams of building his own professional grade studio where he can experiment and put down his ideas as finished compositions. Equally adept at computer music sequencing he is a clever programmer and often program pieces of music to form the foundation for experiments on new compositions. Like a star dancing the horizon, just to light up that spark in your mind and open the gates of that dam that lets out inspiration that is TUKI.
Tuki has performed with reputed names like-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),Fred Hamilton-Jazz guitar great from Dallas Texas and Pandit Tarun Mazumdar Indian Santoor Maestro.
The album TRIBUTE TO ERIC JOHNSON USA (GRAMMY winning guitarist from Austin Texas) features the dazzling guitar work by Tuki (KROSSWINDZ) on the track SPACE GUITAR. Available in USA and at the Val Serrie productions site.
Carl Martin Guitar Pedals from Denmark has approached Tuki for an endorsement deal to be inked soon and the product launch and product demo was done at the great Guitar Gurus Concert in Bangalore in July 2009. Vikramjit(Tuki) was featured in the first Guitar festival in India-Guitar Gurus May 30th Fireflies Presents Guitar Gurus -the concert 5 of the hottest guitar players from all over India namely Vikramjit 'Tuki' Banerjee (Kolkata) ,Amit Heri (Bangalore), Derek Julien (Pune), Sanjay Divecha (Mumbai), and John Anthony (Chennai) came together on one stage. Each artist played for one hour and the show ended with a mother of a jam involving all artists
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 independant Washington based label JOE ANTHONY PRODUCTIONS,this album has gone on to become a hot seller from amazon , itunes 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 Prithibita Naki Choto Hote Hote.Released in 1994 the album AABAR BOCHOR KURI POREY has become a staple amongst music lovers. The collaboration happened when Gautam suggested KROSSWINDZ record and perform one 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 rock band to a 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 created a tremendous fan following of loyal fans who followed the band and are still avid listeners/audiences, 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.
KROSSWINDZ from Calcutta India,we are the first band from the eastern region of India to release an album of English originals way back in 1993 called SINGLES.Krosswindz have also released a full length English originals album called ONE WORLD in 2002 .Krosswindz also have releases from RSJ records Delhi ,Chandrani Tuki’s wife and co songwriter for Krosswindz has originals which were featured in GIR vol 1 and 2.Krosswindz have 9 albums in their regional language Bengali of which 5 are full length albums and the other 4 are compilations. Krosswindz toured the USA in September/October 2009 and 2007-they played for Sandusky Radio in Seattle,and they played concerts at the following cities-Los Angeles,New York,San Fransisco,Chicago,Dallas,Austin City,Sacramento,Boston,Delaware,Tampa,San Diego,Jersey City and Atlanta . Krosswindz are focusing on fusion with jazz leanings right now.Krosswindz are working on their new English album to be released in the summer of 2010.
www.krosswindz.com
www.myspace.com/krosswindz
Studio hardware instruments
Soundcraft sx mixer 24 channel mixer, Tannoy reveal active studio monitor speakers,Chandler Tube Driver tube preamp,Pre-sonus tube preamp, Behringer composer pro mdx2200 compresser, Boss gt5 preamp/multi effects, Kurzweil k2500r rack synth/sampler 32 mb ram with scsi cd rom drive, Roland gr 30 guitar synth, Roland tb 303, Roland mini 8 channel mixer, Korg trinity keyboard, Yamaha ys200 keyboard, Zoom st224 sampletrack sampler, Akg c1000s mic, Shure sm 58 mic, Dapic microphone, Sony cassette decks TC fx150, Thomson mp3 vcd acd player/amp, Sony 3 way hifi speakers wooden, Akai mx150 Boombox(best reference monitor), Koss headphones, Patch bays, Gator 6 unit rack flight case.
Guitar/bass equipment
Roland bc60 blues cube guitar amplifier,Fender Frontman 25R, two stranger 100 watt guitar amplifiers, Pedals by Chandler,Danelectro,Arion,Jim Dunlop,Boss,Dod,Zoom.
Loads of guitars
Fender Eric Johnson signature series stratocaster 2 tone sunburst,Frankenstrat with Fender gold lace sensor pickups,Fender bronco(vintage 1976), Fender jazz bass, Serena jazz bass, Samick active 5 string bass with seymour duncan pickups, Steinberger headless guitar with emg pickups, Epiphone coronet vintage with paf pickups, Fender
squier affinity series stratocater, Ovation accoustic cutaway,Solitude nylon string, Custom made double neck with fretless piccolo banjo and 6 string electric necks,Custom POD Guitar with Jackson type neck and onboard effects via Pocket POD,Concord guitar strat type with gk2 synth driver,Folk style yamaha accoustic, 12 string accoustic,Korg digital tuners.
Various indian stringed instruments: Do tara, Indian violin, Indian percussion-Tablas, Khol, Khamak, Dhol etc. Harmonium by dwarkin and sons.
