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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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
Authentic Sufi Music for Cultural Events, Spiritual Gatherings, and World Music Festivals
Falsa takes its name from a small, tart berry native to South Asia—an unexpected symbol of reunion and return. For vocalist Umer Piracha, tasting the falsa fruit after a decade of separation from his homeland awakened a wave of buried memory and longing. That visceral moment sparked the heart of Falsa: a transcultural music collective born from Sufi tradition and devoted to exploring the sacred, the personal, and the beautifully in-between. In Falsa’s sound, centuries of devotional music meet the stories of diaspora. This isn’t just music—it’s a practice of presence, a journey toward wholeness. Experience it live.
Falsa is a genre-blurring Sufi music collective rooted in the ecstatic poetry of 14th-century mystics like Amir Khusrao, whose verses form the foundation of the Qawwali tradition. From this sacred lineage—carried across centuries and borders—Falsa creates immersive soundscapes where spiritual longing meets transcultural improvisation. Based in New York City, the ensemble weaves Sufi vocals, Carnatic violin, tabla, harmonium, Bass VI, and drums into a deeply felt musical journey. Each performance becomes a shared ritual—blending rhythm, surrender, and presence in spaces where sound becomes sanctuary.
Check out our Live Sufi Music performances in NYC and beyond, and book to experience how Falsa blends World Music & Sufi Traditions