Christopher Larkin (composer)

Christopher Larkin is a composer for video games, film, and television, best known for his work on Hollow Knight and the upcoming sequel Hollow Knight: Silksong. Some of his other works include Pac-Man 256, Outfolded, TOHU, and Hacknet.

Education
Larkin studied composition at Brighton Secondary School, then at the Elder Conservatorium of Music in Adelaide. His mentors were Mr. John Polglase, Prof. Charles Bodman Rae, and Prof. Graeme Koehne.

Career
Larkin began composing music at a young age and collaborated with filmmaking students while he attended the Elder Conservatory of Music. He now works as a professional composer and sound designer for visual media such as Film, TV, and Video games. Larkin had known Ari Gibson, the director of Team Cherry, before starting work on their game, Hollow Knight. Larkin found out about the project when it was still a Kickstarter and decided to send in a demo for the project. Larkin worked with Team Cherry to produce a full soundtrack to the game, and it was released in 2017 to critical acclaim. He is continuing his collaboration with Team Cherry on Hollow Knight's upcoming sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong.

Larkin was asked to speak at the High Score 2023 conference hosted by APRA AMCOS alongside Yoko Shimomura, in which he closed out the conference.

Compositional style
In his music, Larkin integrates elements of his classical training with a diverse range of musical styles. He draws inspiration from classical composers such as Debussy as well as visual-media composers such as James Newton, Joe Hisaishi, and Koji Kondo.

Larkin's most notable work, the Hollow Knight soundtrack, is characterized as conveying "dark elegance and melancholy." The soundtrack is largely orchestral and employs recurring leitmotifs throughout different tracks, each often corresponding to a location or character. Larkin also incorporated textural and instrumental themes into the score, such as using guitar harmonics to represent the glistening environment of the in-game location "Crystal Peak".

For the adventure game TOHU, produced by Fireart Games, Larkin used the Digital Audio Workstation Cubase to create a musical score that reflects the game's whimsical story and visuals. His process involved observing the gameplay sent to him by the developers, and sonically interpreting those visual elements.

List of works
Larkin has composed music for the following productions:

Awards

 * Best Composition at the South Australian Screen Awards 2015
 * Best Sound Design at the South Australian Screen Awards 2016
 * ASSG Awards Best Sound for Interactive Media 2017
 * Best Score at the South Australian Screen Awards 2021