Hollow Knight "A Dream" 3:44

Happy Silksong Day! Hollow Knight: Silksong is finally out! To celebrate Team Cherry's long-anticipated sequel not actually being vaporware, we're proud to also finally drop an excellently honorific EP that could have been our vaporware. :-) Canadian composer, game developer, OCR visualizer creator, and former OC ReMix judge DaMonz has created an earnest tribute EP to Hollow Knight entitled A Knight (for a Knight)! It's a lo-fi-inspired 4-track trek that transforms Christopher Larkin's thoughtful and understated score from the game into groovy, dreamy, and deliberate remixes. According to DaMonz, his Hollow Knight experience helped him persevere through tough times:

"This whole project initially started as just a single short lo-fi-ish remix just to mess around a few years ago. And just as it so often does, it spiraled almost out of control in the classic loop of "just a little more", until it became the 4-track EP that it is now!

Hollow Knight holds a very special place in my heart, because playing that game was a very crucial moment in my recovery from pretty severe depression. Working in a big game company had been siphoning out my passion for a while, and Hollow Knight was the game that reminded me why I was doing what I was doing. I will forever be grateful to Team Cherry for essentially saving my life!"

The EP also features exquisite cello performances by Monzerol's mom, cellist Christine Giguère, making the EP a family collaboration. The visual artwork was created by another past collaborator of DaMonz's, the visually versatile Annie Doyon, creator of the album art for 2017's Mirror Image: A Link to the Past Remixed album.

On the featured ReMix side, we kick things off with the EP's opening piece arranging "Dirtmouth", one of album's bookends including cello from Christine Giguère. Despite being the album opener, this was created last, with lots of prior intentions and some dropped concepts, as DaMonz explains:

"Although this is the intro track for my Hollow Knight EP, it was the last one to get made. I knew from the start that I wanted to open the album with this source, but I wondered for a very long time about how I should approach it. I played around with a bunch of different ideas for a while, which pretty much all didn't feel right. This included a very strange take on gypsy jazz, which probably could have worked, but the stars just weren't aligned for it.

The big determining factor which completely nailed down the track's vision was the idea of inviting my mom Christine to participate once again in my remixing shenanigans with her cello, which I'm very glad she accepted! With that settled, the arrangement basically wrote itself and the track was finished in a flash. I wanted to stay fairly close to the original in the sense that I wanted to preserve the sweet blend of coziness and mystery that I get from it, and I feel like the cello performance completely nailed it.

Also, Sébastien (Trainbeat) told me he didn't want credit on this track, but he handled all of the recording studio engineering and setting up the charts for Christine, which the world needs to know!! Huge, huge thanks to both of them for their invaluable help once again!"

We're excited that all four tracks from A Knight (for a Knight) were individually submitted, so our site's Hollow Knight representation will double thanks to DaMonz! Judge prophetik music lauded the synergy in this mom/son musical collab, plucking out several highlights from both contributors:

"cello up front is strikingly beautiful. what playing. the understated synth work initially really underpins (no pun intended) the cello part well. beat comes in at 0:45. the patience that your keys have is really nice - it fits very well into the groove. cello's back at 1:15 and i love the tone [...] bass tone in the next section is neat as it jumps around and adds some agility to the arrangement.

beat pulls back a bit at 2:01 and lets the cello take lead again, then another section of more active bass work mirrored in the vibes. the build into the high at 3:02 is really nice. after that it's downhill to the finish - the drums glitch themselves out, there's another beautiful sustain with the cello, and then one more broken chord to finish it.

this is, as expected, superb. the cello work really puts it over the top. excellent job."

Fellow panelist Chimpazilla felt DaMonz and Giguère successfully supplemented the dark elegance of Larkin's work with their own unique vibe:

"Wow, what a beautiful and luscious remix of this source. The cello playing is absolutely glorious and pays perfect homage to the source without replicating it. Emery's synth and instrument writing around the cello is excellent. I love the little bass reverses. I hear little clicks in the intro at the end of each reverse, but that's just part of the effect.

This arrangement is sooooooo lovely, and full of varied groovy sounds, all low-key and chill, and with a super nice shuffley vibe. [...]

Glorious, emotional track, so beautifully performed and produced."

Judge Emunator rewarded DaMonz's extra attention to his album opener, naming it his personal pick of the litter from the EP:

"This is probably my favorite of your Hollow Knight remixes, due to the sheer amount of instrumental variety and delicate pacing of the arrangement. Live cello makes a huge impact here, having such an emotive lead line to carry the melody was a very effective decision."

Giguère's gorgeous cello was also part of secret sauce for DaMonz's contributions to Songs of the Sirens: Link's Awakening Remixed, so we're honored to have her impeccable playing featured here once again. DaMonz going for a more beat-driven take on "Dirtmouth" with more of a swing to it works surprisingly well, and those kinds of beats are a creative fixture in every entry from A Knight (for a Knight)! We hope you'll let every Hollow Knight fan and every music fan in your circle know about this bite-sized, sophisticated, power-packed tribute to the original Hollow Knight: still lush, haunting, and introspective, yet possessing extra drive behind it that fits these themes like a glove. :-)