Kroke

Kroke
Left to right: Tomasz Lato and Tomasz Kukurba during the concert in Mieres
Background information
Origin	Kraków, Poland
Genres	world music, Klezmer, Jewish music, folk, jazz, fusion
Years active	1992-present
Labels	Oriente Musik, EMI Classics, NLD, Grelcom Studio, Artur Okularczyk, Radio Kraków Studio, Dub Master Studios, EMI Music Poland
Associated acts	Nigel Kennedy, Edyta Geppert, Maja Sikorowska, Krzysztof Herdzin, Tindra
Website	kroke.com.pl
Members	Tomasz Lato Tomasz Kukurba Jerzy Bawoł
Past members	Tomasz Grochot

Kroke is a Polish instrumental ensemble of world music. The band's name in Yiddish means Kraków.

The band was founded in 1992 by three friends and graduates of the Academy of Music in Kraków. Initially, they were associated with klezmer music with strong Balkan influences. Currently, their work draws inspiration from a variety of ethnic music and sounds of the Orient (especially on the album Seventh Trip), combining these with jazz to create their own distinctive style.

In addition to their own projects, Kroke have recorded albums with artists such as Nigel Kennedy, Edyta Geppert, Maja Sikorowska and Tindra.

One of their songs, "The Secret of the Life Tree", features on the soundtrack of David Lynch's 2006 film Inland Empire.

The first official release from KROKE was the 1993 cassette “Klezmer Acoustic Music”. During a promotional concert for the album, the band met Steven Spielberg, who invited them to perform at the “Survivors Reunion” concert in Jerusalem, Israel and during the Polish premier of the film Schindler’s List.

In 1996, the band signed with the German record label Oriente Musik. The first album of material, released the same year, through this collaboration was Trio.

Upon the invitation of Peter Gabriel, KROKE made their first appearance at the WOMAD festival in July 1997. As a result, joint recording sessions at Real World Studios with other musicians led to material from the band being subsequently used by Peter Gabriel on his album Long Walk Home- music from the Rabbit-Proof Fence, the soundtrack to the film of the same name. In the same year, KROKE released their second full-length album – Eden.