Nano Stern

Friday, November 8, 2013
Teatro Caupolicán [Santiago, Chile]

The Caupolicán Theater has become the best place when it comes to see how far your message has reached the public, especially when it comes to national music. If before it was Manuel García who threw himself in this almost self sacrificial endeavor, and the results where more than satisfactory, this time it was Nano Stern who dared to pick up the glove and use this central stage to assemble a large audience, alone and with a strategy closer to word of mouth than to big commercial promotion of other recent events.

Going back to comparisons (unnecessary, by the way), there was an effort by the mainstream media to establish a sort of "golden trio" of Chilean music between Stern, Garcia, and Gepe. Nothing could be further from the truth. The evening of November 8, focusing solely on the show put on by Nano Stern, crushes any possible comparison.

tern is gifted with a special musicality and that was evident throughout the almost 3 hours that the show lasted, which was recorded for a coming DVD. His musical language goes from trova, the rescue of Nueva canción, and cuecas, to the inclusion of Latin American elements such as Peruvian waltz, huaynos, sones and tonadas. And amidst it all, Nano Stern appears as a sort of tireless minstrel that leads the recital be it on guitars, wind instruments, or his violin.

The audience which filled the Caupolicán knew that the show was Stern’s. It was his fans, old and new, who attended the evening. And, therefore they sang along and enthusiastically joined the music offered by Stern and his magnificent band, which highlighted the different stylistic resources that the artist has to offer. Straight from the beginning, with songs such as "El Amanecer" and "La Puta Esperanza", which included the first of many urgent social messages, created a symbiosis between Stern and the audience.

This relationship held up in both facets of the show: one intimate that could be appreciated in songs such as "Cementerio" that included the participation of a string quartet, or "Azul" in which a jazzier, fusion oriented sound became present, and the more festive side of the concert that had everyone jumping up from their seats. There, for example, songs like "La Raiz" and "Los Cantores" were sung along side guests Juana Fé and Hip Hop superstar Ana Tijoux.


In this mood of celebration, the list of guests was generous. Besides Juana Fé, who would go back on stage for "El Vino y El Destino", and Tijoux, Nano was joined by Joe Vasconcellos, who was acclaimed by the audience when he appeared to sing "Lágrimas de Oro y Plata", and the immense Inti Illimani. It was with them that the emotional peak of the concert was reached. Firstly they played "La Siembra", a song co-written by Stern which appears on their latest album "La máquina del tiempo", and then the homage to Victor Jara with "El Aparecido", in a section filled with feeling.

The promenade through a career that has been made almost on the margin of the mainstream was well elaborated. From fundamental songs such as "Cementerio" to later songs from "Los Espejos", and including songs like "Carnavalito del Ciempiés", demonstrated how deeply Latin American folk music has penetrated Stern’s musical language. Likewise, and this is something to analyze in more depth some other time, it must be said that his virtuosity on the guitar has nothing to envy any other national exponents.

As it belongs in any party, because after all, that’s what the Caupolicán became, the end of the show had everyone dancing. "La despedida", the last song of this marathon concert, made over 3,000 people jump and dance. By now, the communion between Stern and his audience was complete, so that this last song just confirmed the deep relationship between both parts, one that has been built hand to hand with Nano Stern’s songs.

The musician himself highlighted the festive character of everything that happened at the concert. Always thankful, always humble, his presence was more than enough to generate a great number of positive feelings in Caupolicán that, once again, was a privileged witness to an important landmark in Chilean musical history.


Orlando Balboa Matamoros, Rockaxis Magazine - Rockaxis Magazine

It’s not very common, when a letter from Chile ends with the German words “Grüße aus Chile”, “Greetings from Chile”. It was a letter Fernando Daniel Stern Britzmann, better known by his stage name Nano Stern. He  is a 27 year old singer and composer of Chile, which has gained fame and recognition for his solo work, particularly from his album The Mirror. But the few word are not the only connections of Stern to Germany. “I went to Germany when I was 19 years old. I was in need of discovering the world, getting out of Chile and getting some miles into myself. Part of my family came originally from Germany to Chile, as refugees during  World War II, so going there seemed like an important self discovery destination.”  He arrived in Bonn, where he had some distant relatives who where extremely welcoming and hosted him for the first month. Nano tried to make a living from making music in the precinct. “At first I survived busking on the streets, also in Cologne (Köln). Eventually I got a couple of steady gigs going, the very first solo gigs I ever did.”
Born into a Jewish family and brother of the singer Claudia Stern, Nano Stern began playing the violin at age 3. Collaborated with major bands of folk rock and scrub and Popular Mechanics. “Then at some point I started working as an assistant in a recording studio and playing with Ortiga, a legendary Chilean band who was exiled in the 70s and fled to Germany”, he continues. “ I spent a wonderful year of my life there and composed and recorded half of my first solo album in the shores of the Rhine.” Eventually he moved to Amsterdam and thus started a long journey that had him rolling non stop for six years.
During this time he came across a lot of countries in Europe, but also overseas in Australia. Do people in different countries have a different way to react to his music? We wanted to know. “Every time you play, you are confronted to a new audience, and each time there are different challenges, different ways to communicate with them. I owe a lot of my stage presence to the fact that I started doing solo concerts in non-spanish speaking countries where I had to come across with what I wanted to express without counting on lyrics.” People tend to comment that they are very touched by his gigs regardless of not understanding the words.” So I guess, its double the impact when I’m playing at home. I love performing in exotic places like Germany (haha) but there’s nothing like home, where there’s a history in common, a mythology and a sense of community which makes music fly so much higher. In a way, I have come to feel strongly about something: Think local, act global.”
Of course it is an advantage to understand Spanish in order to get a grasp of what Nano’s songs are about. But there is also a very strong non-verbal momentum that catches the audience – no matter where.  “My songs go on a very wide range of issues, some extremely personal and others more social. But always from a intimate perspective.”  Hes have no interest in singing about "big issues" , he says, unless they become a real life concern, an experience that one lives in his or her everyday life. “Of course, if you go around the world with open eyes and heart, most of these issues end up having tremendous impact on our small lives, so in my case they turn up in songs. Love, Anger, Hope, Struggle, Freedom, Environment, and specially the joy of little things!”
But political issues are also on the agenda. At least when it comes to musicians that influenced him strongly. From Chile there are Violeta Parra, Inti Illimani, Victor Jara, Los Jaivas or Congreso to be mentioned. From Germany he states Rio Reiser, Hannes Wader, JS Bach or Robert Schumann. At least the former two are ikons of 1970s and 1980s left-wing political songwriting.
It is no big surprise that Nano Stern has become a well known star. “Here in Chile, I’m becoming a famous person which is kind of funny; nice sometimes, awful some other times. Of course it has a tremendous impact, when you do a concert and thousands of people arrive, when people stop you in the street every day, when you gain media recognition and suddenly people are interested in your opinion on things beyond music. I guess it comes with a responsibility that must be taken seriously”, he says.
What he does not seem to take too seriously is himself as a person. There is not even the faintest touch of an oversized self-esteem when he comes to describe his musical style. “New wine that fills old bottles”, he states briefly.

There is a very intense scene in Chile at the moment. Nano sees himself as part of a generation of artists that has brought lots of new energy into Chilean society. Not only on an artistic level. Stern’s generation has risen and now bears the flag of demand for a more just and equal country and of course music reflects that reality, he says.
At the moment Nano Stern sees his popularity as a privilege. “I am lucky to have been playing all around Latin America. I often go to Argentina, and more and more I go to other places like Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, etc.” He has a bib tour coming up this summer which will take him and his band to Slovenia, England, Sweden, Belgium, Austria and Hungary. All tour dates can be found at www.nanostern.cl.
A privilege he wants to expand within the coming years. “I am currently experiencing a fast massification of my music, which has interesting effects on how and why you do what you do”, he says. “In five  years, I see myself touring a lot and doing very big things. In ten, perhaps more chilled out, and focusing mostly on searching for the origin within. Anyways, life is always a balance of both to a certain extent, of going inwards and outwards. If you fall out of balance in this respect, you are bound to collapse.” Andreas Nöthen - Insight World Music Magazine

..., while Fernando Daniel Stern Britzmann, aka Nano Stern, showed why he is one of the leading exponents of a new generation of Chilean “canto popular” singers-songwriters.

Stern’s show was marked by a wide range of instruments, from cow bells to cellos, and many band members and support staff sported t-shirts plugging the “Mas Musica Chilena” campaign, which seeks to secure a mandate for radio hours dedicated to local artists.

The outspoken musician also weighed into the Chile-Peru border dispute by dedicating a Peruvian-inspired number to his “brothers and sisters” to the north who were being “treated like shit” by a handful of “wealthy Chilean families.” The song saw the band’s drummer beat a “cajón peruano” throughout a barnstorming 10 minute flute-off between Stern — on a traditional wind instrument — and his flautist. - The Santiago Times