Falsa | Live Sufi Music Performances | NYC World Music Ensemble

INVOKING REFLECTION, CONVERSATION & TRANSCENDENCE | AS FEATURED ON NPR, WITH ACCLAIMED PERFORMANCES AT JOE'S PUB (Public Theatre NYC), LITTLE ISLAND NYC, BARBES Brooklyn AND MORE. Live Sufi music for events & performances. Book Now!

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Purchase our Album “ American Sufi ” HERE ON BANDCAMP!

and LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: TINYURL.COM/FALSPOTIFY

Based in New York City, Falsa is rooted in 14th century Sufi music (Indian classical mysticism similar to Rumi's elevating poetry) with contemporary arrangements transcending genre-specificity and cultural preconceptions, in collaboration with a diverse array of improvisational world musicians.

A Falsa experience can range from Minimalist Meditative to Raga Jazz Fusion to high energy World Improvisation that gets you moving, to a more explosive Ritual-Communitas oriented one featuring dancers and immersive visuals. But ultimately, Falsa is about normalizing the transcendent experience.

It originally emerged as a collaboration between long-term friends and has since evolved into an exploration of what's possible when people are moved collectively by the pursuit of the intangible aspects of a communal gathering. There's a mystical culinary connection here: Falsa gets its name from a tropical berry native to India and Pakistan. And Sufi music is about a state of separation that longs for union. There was a decade in Umer's (vocalist, Falsa) life that he couldn’t return home to Pakistan from the US due to Kafkaesque immigration bureaucracies. When he finally returned and had the fruit again, it "broke through all the intellectualization and numbness I realized I had cultivated to cope, and in the process of giving myself over to the majesty of feeling I realized that home is something you cannot take with you, you have to return to it"

In our music, we want to revere and dignify the most magical aspects of experience that are gifts and not acquisitions, like reclaiming a half-remembered dream. Our music is not about means to ends, but about meaning and transcendence, about healing a wounded alienation we feel in our very highly mechanized, and in the ways that matter, poorly connected society, one performance at a time.

BOOKINGS/CONTACT: FALSA@FALSAMUSIC.COM

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Thresholds: Falsa & Mehrnam Rastegari in Concert

  • Sound Mind Center 202b Plymouth St Brooklyn, NY 11201 (map)

Step into the Sound Between Worlds. RSVP HERE
On the first breath of the week, step into a different kind of Monday - one that honors the pause between what has been and what is to come. A threshold moment, perfect for deep listening.

Join Falsa and Mehrnam Rastegari for an intimate night of transcendent, ancestral sound.

Falsa’s music draws from centuries of poetic Sufi mysticism, layered with transcultural improvisation, creating soundscapes both ancient and emergent.

Mehrnam Rastegari’s trio weaves textures from Persian classical tradition and psychedelic rock soundscapes - a shimmer of memory, briefly held then set free.

Together, these two ensembles offer more than a performance: a shared commitment to presence over spectacle, to sound as connection, and to longing as a compositional force. Both treat heritage not as nostalgia, but as fertile ground for transformation. Both dwell in restraint, repetition, and mood - inviting you to listen not for answers, but for openings.

Hosted at Sound Mind Center- Brooklyn’s sanctuary for music, healing, and conscious community-  this evening brings ancestral music into cinematic memory: a shared language of improvisation, devotion, and immersive sound.

🎟 Sliding scale $25 Early Bird - $30 GA - $35 Door
 📍 Sound Mind Center, 202b Plymouth St, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (DUMBO)
 🕖 Doors at 7:00 PM | Music at 7:30 PM

Earlier Event: August 22
Falsa at Barbès Brooklyn!
Later Event: October 4
Falsa at Brooklyn Museum | Live Sufi Music & Transcultural World/Jazz