One morning in July 2018 I woke up with the echo of a clangorous music in my head. As I tried to hang onto it the sounds coalesced into a piano, its notes both struck and sustained, an electric guitar, and bell-like percussion. I emailed Claire Edwardes: she said the music might be suitable for Ensemble Offspring, and she told me she had just bought an aluphone, which turned out to ring in just the way I was imagining. I began trying to write down what I?d heard in my dream, eventually finishing the score in April 2019. Iron rain is dedicated to Claire Edwardes and to the memory of my wife, Susan McNally, who died in December 2018. Ensemble Offspring (Joe Fallon, guitar; Claire Edwardes, percussion; Zubin Kanga, piano) gave the first performance in Paddington Town Hall, Sydney on 21st June 2019.