Luis Nacht & Camila Nebbia
Noche y Niebla
Review
24
March, 2026
By: Khagan Aslanov
Review from In&OutJazz Magazine. Noche y Niebla (ears & eyes Records, 2026). Luis Nacht, tenor and soprano saxophone / Camila Nebbia, tenor saxophone/ Jerónimo Carmona, double bass / Fermín Merlo, drums
It is arguably the biggest achievement and point of pride in a mentor’s life, when their protégé is able to go out into the world, and forge an identity and career of their own. One can only imagine the honour Luis Nacht must feel as he watches Camila Nebbia ascend through the realm of experimental music, fearlessly and consistently assembling one of the most impressive catalogues in the genre.
Over the past fifteen years, the two have formed a profound cross-generational bond, and their relationship, both within the student/teacher dynamic and as collaborative peers, lend their playing both a familial tenderness and telepathic connection. All this makes Noche y Niebla, the duo’s most recent outing, a most exhilarating expedition into the core of how a listener’s understanding of ‘night’ and ‘fog’ can be transposed into the free jazz frame.
The depth of mutuality of the dialogue between Nebbia and Nacht is simply astonishing, and the opener, “La Colqué,” sets the tone early on. A mini-study in texture, on this prelude, the overlapping saxophones whip up a pulsing swarm of microtonal adjustments. From there, Nebbia and Nacht put on a pyrotechnic display of skill and interplay – harmonics that collide and then splinter away from each other, overblown variations and pure spontaneous reactivity all get a notch, as the record crashes from one remarkable piece to the next.
The rhythm section fuse into their fold seamlessly, and for good reason. Both double bassist Jéronimo Carmona and percussionist Fermín Merlo have played with Nacht for many years, and their connection is undeniable. With tremendous expressive force, they build a solid architectural foundation from which Nacht and Nebbia spring, steady and reliable when a section calls for it, then storming and unhinged. As a quartet, the talent assembled here represents several generations which stand at the forefront of Argentine avant-garde, and it is a privilege to hear them collide.
Nebbia and Nacht cannot miss here. Whether they venture into melodic counterpoints on “Me Condiciona El Nombre,” thick structural drone-work on “Me Gusta Asi,” or spiky abrasion on “Re Quemada,” their playing, both individually, and plaited into one, represents the upper stratosphere of improvisational art – it is both intuitive and utterly untethered, supremely competent and highly volatile.
Watching fog descend onto night can be a strange aesthetic moment – it is beautiful and meditative, and always a little unsettling. One always feels humbled when watching natural elements collide. The entirety of that spectrum is personified in the album’s shifting between moods and tonality.
Closer “Fumanchu” brings the album’s thematic supposition to its beatific conclusion. Packed with air and densely atmospheric, the piece’s sub-tone playing keeps it lingering in a ghostly state – vaporous, doleful and menacing.
Simply put, Noche y Niebla is a marvellous culmination of Nebbia and Nacht’s prolonged musical relationship, a synchronized and asymmetric dive into identity and naturalism. And as that nocturnal fog-induced trance takes effect in full, the two saxophonists are left basking in their avant-jazz light.
