Christopher Larkin

Christopher James Larkin is an Australian composer for video games, film, and television, best known for his work on Hollow Knight and its sequel Hollow Knight: Silksong (2025). Some of his other works include the music for Pac-Man 256 (2015), Outfolded (2016), TOHU (2021), and Hacknet (2015).

Early life and education Christopher James Larkin

Larkin began composing music at a young age and collaborated with filmmaking students while he attended the Elder Conservatorium.

In October 2015, he submitted his thesis for an MPhil in music composition, entitled "Orchestrating the wasteland: sample library engineering as an integral process of realising the music for Wastelander Panda".

Career

Larkin composed the score for the web series Wastelander Panda: Exile, released in 2014 as a second set of three 10-minute episodes.

He knew Ari Gibson, the director of Team Cherry, prior to starting work on their game, Hollow Knight, which was released in 2017. He found out about the project when it was still a Kickstarter and decided to send in a demo for the project.

In 2021 Larkin composed the music for the video game TOHU. He is set to speak again at High Score 2026.

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

His most notable work, the Hollow Knight soundtrack, is characterised as conveying "dark elegance and melancholy."

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.

Works Larkin has composed music for the following productions:

Awards Year Award Category Result 2015 South Australian Screen Awards Best Composition 2016 South Australian Screen Awards Best Sound Design 2017 Australian Screen Sound Guild Awards Best Sound for Interactive Media 2021 South Australian Screen Awards Best Score 2025 The Game Awards 2025 Best Score & Music