Song Cover Image

September

HuntedGatherer
Minimalist dark chamber folk, D minor, 82 BPM, approximately 5 minutes, Intimate fingerpicked acoustic guitar as the foundation, sparse felt piano, extremely restrained upright bass and solo cello, Long stretches of near-silence and instrumental space, No drums, No choir, No lush orchestral swells, Close, fragile, understated vocal performance with natural imperfections and restrained emotion, The arrangement should feel like an old memory being revisited rather than a conventional grief ballad, Gradually introduce cello and piano but keep the instrumentation sparse throughout, Extended instrumental passages should let the acoustic guitar and cello carry the emotion, September, a father's birthday, three brothers beside a dying father, and the physical details of the room should feel more important than abstract statements about grief, End almost completely bare, Studio recording only, no audience, no live-performance ambience, no glossy production, no cinematic bombast
V6-WILD

[Intro] [Fingerpicked Acoustic Guitar, Very Sparse Felt Piano] [Key: D Minor, BPM: 82] [Intro] [Acoustic Guitar Only] September used to mean Dad's birthday [Verse 1] [Soft Piano Enters] My brothers were there I remember that much One on either side of me And Dad in the recliner Nobody said much There wasn't anything to say The machines kept making noise And we kept watching his chest [Verse 2] [Low Cello Enters] I remember his hands That's the part that stayed The shape of them Resting in mine I remember looking at my brothers And knowing they were seeing it too Three people Watching the same thing happen None of us able to stop it [Instrumental] [Acoustic Guitar, Sustained Cello] [8 Bars] [Verse 3] [Cello Pizzicato, Very Sparse] September comes back And brings the room with it Not the whole thing Just pieces The chair The blanket My brothers His hands That last breath His necklace going still But what I remember most is the look he gave us [Chorus] [Very Restrained Strings Enter] Every September I lose him again Not the way I lost him then Just enough To remember Every September His birthday comes around And somewhere in my head We're all still standing there [Instrumental] [Fingerpicked Acoustic, Cello] [12 Bars] [Verse 4] [Acoustic Guitar and Felt Piano] I don't call my brothers And ask if they remember I don't need to I know they do Sometimes I wonder If they get September too If there's a morning When they wake up And they're five years younger And Dad is still breathing [Bridge] [Nearly Bare, Solo Acoustic] I wish I remembered more I wish I remembered less I wish the last thing I knew about him Wasn't the last thing [Long Instrumental] [Acoustic Guitar, Solo Cello] [16 Bars] [Final Chorus] [Full Arrangement, Still Quiet] Every September I lose him again I don't mean the dying I mean the room The three of us Standing there Watching the end Become something We'd have to carry Every September His birthday comes around And for a little while I'm back there Then October comes And I can breathe again [Outro] [Acoustic Guitar Only] September used to mean Dad's birthday... [Final Instrumental] [Acoustic Guitar and One Sustained Cello Note] [Fade]