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<\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Gabriel G\u00f6ssel was a significant collector of gramophone discs and an expert in the beginnings of the Czech sound industry. He was born in 1943. In the late 1960\u2019s, G\u00f6ssel pursued higher education studying chemical-engineering. During this time he worked in a paper production factory. Due to complications with the state secret police (st\u00e1tn\u00ed bezpe\u010dnosti), he did not complete his studies. He worked as a technician until the early 1980\u2019s and afterwards worked as a freelancer and professionally translated technical texts. Later he also translated fiction (beletrii). Some of his translated texts include the works of Stephen King, <\/span>The Heart is a Lonely Hunter<\/span><\/i> by Carson McCullers, as well as Orwell\u2019s <\/span>Animal Farm<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Tribute to Catalonia<\/span><\/i>. He published his translation of Orwell\u2019s <\/span>Animal Farm <\/span><\/i>following the Prague Spring takeover of August 1968.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Also in August 1968, G\u00f6ssel demonstrated great courage and bravery when he defended against injustice in defense of the building which housed Czechoslovakian Radio. In later years he became involved in samizdat activities and worked with a social circle surrounding V\u00e1clav Havel. Here, he also participated in publishing the samizdat edition of <\/span>Expedition<\/span><\/i>. After Havel’s arrest and imprisonment in the late 1970s, Jan Lopatka and Ivan Havel became the chief editors. The editorial circle also included Zden\u011bk Urb\u00e1nek, Martin Palou\u0161, Josef Danisz and Gabriel G\u00f6ssel. As a result of his prior employment in a paper mill, Gabriel was also in charge of binding the publications.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>He began collecting records, turntables, and phonographs as early as the 1970s. Later in his collection of records he specialized mainly in Czech repertoire and the history of the domestic sound industry. Thanks to this lifelong interest, he collected an extensive collection of shellac records with historically significant recordings. He did not want to keep his knowledge to himself. That is why he devoted himself to educational and publishing activities, cooperating with Czech museums and other interest groups.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
He published educational texts on the history of sound recording in Czech lands that have been found in domestic and foreign professional journals such as Radio, Audio-Video, Generation, Vlasta, Fox on 78, Munich, Der Schalltrichter, Stuttgart, and For the Record, and he contributed to various discographies (Rainer Lotz Verlag, Bonn).<\/span><\/p>\n
Between 1999 and 2006, Czech Radio 2 broadcast a regular weekly Fonogram GG program, featuring sound portraits of performers from popular music of the past. He prepared a series of multi-part musical profiles of Czech composers and performers of popular music of the past for Czech Radio Prague and Czech Radio Brno. The musical profiles included the works of Karel Ha\u0161ler, Jind\u0159ich Mo\u0161na, Franti\u0161ek Kmoch, Old\u0159ich Nov\u00fd, Kamil B\u011bhounek, J\u00e1ra Pospi\u0161il, Alfons Jindra, Eduard Ingri\u0161, R.A. Dvorsk\u00fd, Jaroslav Je\u017eek, and Marie Zieglerov\u00e1.<\/span><\/p>\n
He also handled transcriptions of old audio recordings to modern media. In the Fonogram Edition, which he prepared for Fr. Rychta\u0159\u00edk and Radioservis, he released about fifty CDs dedicated to recordings of forgotten Czech and foreign stars of popular music of the past. He also prepared a series of compact discs for the Jewish Museum in Prague, Supraphon, Jan Kubel\u00edk Society, and Anton\u00edn Dvo\u0159\u00e1k Memorial (samples here).<\/span><\/p>\n
Gabriel G\u00f6ssel was the author of the exhibition When the Comet Flips Us, organized at the turn of 2003-2004 by Gallery in the M\u00e1nes Hall in Prague. He presented historical phonographs, turntables, and other items from his collections on the background of contemporary art objects related to the lifestyle change caused by the ability to record and reproduce sound.<\/span><\/p>\n