Mikko Tarmia

Mikko Tarmia is a Finnish game music composer, best known for his contribution in critically acclaimed Penumbra game series developed by Frictional Games. Tarmia had his first touch in music production at the beginning of 90s with Amiga MOD trackers and techno music, but later on he received more and more influences from orchestral music and so he learned to play different instruments and finally joined conservatory to get some formal music education (bassoon is his primary instrument). After conservatory he joined Pirkanmaa University of Applied Sciences where he studied music production.
At 2002 Tarmia composed music for his first computer game project, Codeblender Software's submarine action game called DeepTrouble. He also produced music for other Codeblender titles such as Epsilon Tahari: Reign of the Machines, Rally Shift and Deep Trouble 2. At 2006 Tarmia was asked to compose some music for Penumbra, a technical demo for survival horror game developed by Frictional Games. Penumbra gained massive popularity in internet and Frictional Games decided to make Penumbra a commercial game. Penumbra was going to be released in episodes and Tarmia was commissioned to compose all the music for them. A cult classic was born. Penumbra: Overture was released march 2007 and in addition to SDSI award, it received good reviews in media. Paradox Interactive published Penumbra's second chapter, titled Penumbra: Black Plague, worldwide at february 2008. Also Black Plague was awarded and it received critical success - even better than Overture. Penumbra: Requiem, an expansion for the Black Plague was released at august 2008.
Tarmia also runs an independent music label called The Sound of Fiction, which specialises in bringing film and video game music to its fans. At 2008 the label released its first production, AIKA, an atmospheric orchestral soundtrack wrapped around a philosophically inspired science fiction story written by Tom Jubert. For more info visit AIKA website. The label's latest release is Penumbra OST, with an hour of remastered music from all three Penumbra games.