Allan Gutheim is a Swedish electronic music composer and producer, born November 13, 1962 in Stockholm, Sweden. His parents are originally from Paris, France, but moved to Sweden in the 1950s. Since 1990 he is married to Maria Gutheim (born Lindstedt). They have three children together, Alexandra (1991), Paula (1993) and Nathalie (1995).
Gutheim is classically trained, with 15 years of study in Piano, Music theory and Composition. He has written music for films, theatres, ballets, art exhibitions, and multimedia productions. Gutheim's production also comprises books about music theory and the Swedish music industry.
At the age of seven, Gutheim started playing the piano but abandoned classical music in the mid-1970s in favor of composing. His experimenting led in 1976 to him becoming the youngest composer at Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) – a Swedish, professional studio for electro-acoustic music and sound art. Some early works there are Dygnet (The Day), ballet music for Stockholm Opera's production at Maxim Theatre in 1977, and Gryning (Dawn), an electronic work for the Electronic Music Fair in 1979 at Fylkingen, one of the world's oldest associations for experimental music and art.
In 1983-92, Gutheim was the main teacher in Music theory and Digital music production at Kulturama in Stockholm, Sweden's largest school for artistic studies at the post-secondary level. Simultaneously he composed music for the feature film Hägring (Mirage) and a number of ballets, theatre plays, and multimedia productions. In 1986 Gutheim published the educational book Grundläggande Musikteori (Basic Music Theory).
From the equipment at the EMS Studio in the 1970s, with Buchla as the most advanced synthesizer, Gutheim in 1988 founded Allan Gutheim Music Production and in 1989-90, he went on to build his own studio in Stockholm, designed by Ingemar Ohlsson, the ABBA studio designer. The studio was used for music production and music education. Some phonograms were also produced before the studio was sold in 1996.
Gutheim's long experience as a composer, musician, producer, and teacher resulted in the book Den Svenska Musikbranschen (The Swedish Music Industry) in 1996. As followed he became an active lecturer and consultant regarding the music industry, legal rights, and contracts. After the 5th revised edition of the book in 2001, the administrative contractual issues took a lot of time and effort, at the expense of his own music creation. Combined with moving to Skåne in southern Sweden in 2005, this led to a timeout from music.
In 2013 Gutheim teamed up with Unda Arte, a collaborative art duo. This resulted in Postmodern Substrata – an exhibition and art portfolio, with art and texts by Unda Arte and music by Allan Gutheim. Consequently, Gutheim resumed music again.
Between 2013 and 2018 Allan Gutheim's music was released on the record label The Sublunar Society. Until 2016, it was mostly new releases of Gutheim's older productions from the 1980s and 90s.
Allan Gutheim really found his personal style, a mix of modern and retro instrumental electronic synth music, when making the album Sequencer in 2017. The pop duo Hot Beat was formed in 2020 by Allan Gutheim and his wife Maria, with a personal mix of electronic synth-pop, modern dance beats and rap.
Real Time Music is a Swedish record label, music publisher and music producer since 1994, founded by the couple Allan and Maria Gutheim. The company started as Allan Gutheim Music Production in 1988 but later developed into Real Time Music. Real Time Music is since 2019 a member of SOM (Svenska Oberoende Musikproducenter), an association for independent labels in Sweden.
Since 2021, Allan Gutheim is also a producer and director of short films, web series and music videos, for which he has won several awards at film festivals around the world. The web series Philip Gun P.I. is created, directed and produced by Allan Gutheim between 2021 and 2024.
All of Allan Gutheim's music and films are produced at Real Time Music Recording Studio.