Lyttelos – The Listening Body

In this episode, I talk with Finn Upham (RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion) about what happens in the body when we listen to music.

Starting from a research concert in Oslo—where audience members’ breathing, heart rate, and movement were measured—the conversation explores how listening is not just mental or emotional, but deeply physical.

Why do we sometimes hold our breath in music? How can listeners unconsciously breathe with performers? And what does this reveal about music as a shared, human experience?

From Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata to experimental listening practices, this episode invites you to rediscover music through the body.

Finn Upham is a researcher in music cognition and music psychology, with a particular focus on how the body responds to music. He is a postdoctoral researcher at RITMO Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion at the University of Oslo, where he studies the relationship between music, breathing, heart rate, and movement, as well as the interaction between performers and audiences.

In his research, he explores how listeners do not only hear music, but also physically participate in it, for example through breathing and bodily resonance. He has a background as a musician, with experience in singing and wind instruments, and combines this with a strong foundation in mathematics and analytical methods.

Through his work, he contributes to a deeper understanding of how music is experienced in the body, and how listening is an active, embodied, and fundamentally human process.