The Music of Hollow Night

By Julia Scarfe

Hollow Knight and Hollow Knight: Silksong are highly acclaimed indie games produced by Team Cherry, a three person group based in Adelaide, South Australia. Hollow Knight is well known amongst the gaming community for its great graphics, storyline and especially, its music. The music of Hollow Knight and Silksong was entirely composed by Christopher Larkin, and is a key

component of the game’s ambiance and feeling when being played.

The music of the game differs from region to region, even changing in different rooms, based on which characters you are fighting or interacting with in game. The music also changes pace and becomes more pronounced, with louder instruments and a higher tempo (speed of music) the further a player progresses into the game, especially near the climax.

An example of the change in music can be displayed through the comparison between the song crossroads (played at the beginning of the game, when players explore and familiarise themselves with the controls) and the song Radiance (played when the player is fighting the main boss). The gentle low tunes of piano and strings in Crossroads give a comfortable and low-key vibe, while the music of Radiance is loud, orchestral, and stress inducing (speaking from personal experience).

Here’s a link to the two songs for reference:

Hollow Knight OST - Crossroads

Hollow Knight OST - Radiance

These are just two of the 41 unique tracks composed by Christopher Larkin for different characters, places and items, and they all capture the essence of their subjects exceptionally well. Of these 41 tracks, there are two main soundtracks that they are divided into; Hollow Knight: Original Soundtrack and Hollow Knight: Gods and Nightmares. The original soundtrack was released on the 10th of February 2017, along with the initial release of the game that periodically came out on different platforms like Steam and Playstation after that time. This soundtrack has 26 tracks, which cover the entire base game. However, after an update in 2018, encompassing 4 content packs, Hollow Knight: Gods and Nightmares was released on the 9th of August that year, in correlation with the new update which held new areas, bosses and lore. However, the Gods and Nightmares soundtrack is mainly centred around boss music, as the update mainly included arenas and boss fights above all else, despite still having new areas.

Overall, Hollow Knight has such a great variety of music and themes, and I would highly recommend looking into the music as Christopher Larkin is an incredibly talented artist and has composed exceptional music for tv shows and games apart from Hollow Knight. The music of Hollow Knight is really expressive and entertaining, and even if you are not familiar with the game, it's still a fun experience to listen to.