Benjamin Woodgates (b. 1986)
The System Made Me Do It (2026)
Calum Huggan, angela wai nok hui (marimbas)
rec. 2025, The Pool Studios, London
Delphian DCD34737 [25]

The press release for this disc stated, “The System Made Me Do It is a cycle of nine pieces written to accompany the release of the book Russian Pendulum by Alena Ledeneva, a trailblazing exploration of the unseen forces that have shaped Russian politics and society.” Initially I thought this meant the works were played at the launch for the book, but I do not think that happened. Then I read that in the acknowledgement to the book (it is available as a free PDF) the author writes, “My special thanks go to Benjamin Woodgates, who has written the musical album The System Made Me Do It and helped me to hear the rhythms of the patterns in this book.” I am not really sure what that means. Nor was I sure why extracts of the scores for the work are printed at the back of the book along with notes on each movement. 

I found all this very puzzling. I have never heard music written to accompany the release of a book and so am not sure if it operates like a film score and that would I understand more if I read the book. Or is it the composer’s reaction to reading the book. Is the score supposed to stand on its own or in conjunction with the book? There is no clarification to be gained by reading the A4 sheet that comes with the disc. The composer Benjamin Woodgates, a graduate of Oxford University, the Royal College of Music and the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop, has written extensively in collaboration with other art forms, so perhaps this type of reactive music is common in cross-art-form collaborative endeavours.  

I have delved into the book and could not discern any connection between it and the music. The music itself is beautifully written for the two marimbas; Calum Huggan and angela wai nok hui (which is how she writes her name) shape each section musically. But each short movement seems complete in itself and there is no sense of a journey over the nine pieces. Reordering the movements would not, I feel, alter the effect of the whole.

Strangely, I found Movement 8, which gives its name to the overall work, the most satisfying. I am not sure if the composer is joking here as the music sounds more like the “systems music” of the American minimalists, whereas the title The System Made Me Do It, is taken from Ledeneva’s, 2024 exhibition in Paris which seems to be taken from Rasma Karklin’s 2005 book of the same name. That book looked at corruption in post-communist societies.  The liner notes for this movement state that, “Both performers are locked into a system and are slaves to its patterns” which seems quite provocative in the context of Communism.

There are no outlandish technical demands on the performers, although should there have been, I am sure that they would have breezed through them. The notes tell us that in Movement 2 Not Apart, Not Together “the two performers share the same instrument” – but as there is no audible difference in the use of right or left channels, the concept would work only in live performance.

The disc comes in a simple, though nicely designed, cardboard case along with an A4 sheet of paper with very little information. If you download the PDF book, you get to see extracts from the score and a paragraph for each of the movements outlining the musical structures. Maybe it would help if these paragraphs were included with the disc? The A4 sheet is printed only on one side, so there is plenty space – or perhaps the idea was to force the listener to look at the book. In the end, I am puzzled by the whole venture.

Paul RW Jackson

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