Kroke 25: The Best Of

The Polish trio Kroke celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2017. Kroke is the Yiddish name for Kraków, which was a major Jewish town before World War II. Kroke began as a klezmer group, and played at the Polish premiere of Spielberg's Schindler's List. But Jerzy Bawol (accordion), Tomasz Kukurba (violin and viola) and Tomasz Lato (bass) went on to broaden their repertoire into minimalist music and jazz, with collaborations with Polish singer Edyta Geppert and violinist Nigel Kennedy among others. They've released a total of 14 albums, although it was only with the third, 1996's Trio, that they became internationally known. This double album includes tracks from virtually every record from Trio to the Cabaret of Death soundtrack (2015).
Kroke's skill has always been in writing catchy tunes and building them into structures longer than a three-minute song format – ‘Water/Dafino Vino’ is 17 minutes long. They've also included some of their signature songs such as ‘Time’, with its continuous ticking, the wistful ‘Usual Happiness’ and their version of the Balkan classic ‘Ajde Jano’. It's a shame that ‘The Secrets of the Life Tree’, used by David Lynch in Inland Empire, doesn't make the cut, but I sense they are trying to escape their earlier material. The extended version of ‘Time’ seems self-indulgent at over eight minutes, but I guess this album is probably intended for fans rather than Kroke beginners.