“The sound of a bell/Struck off center/Vanishes in haze,” wrote 18th-century Japanese poet Yosa Buson. But when the Far East Side Band strikes its instruments off center, their sounds sustain, singing and sighing like birds or droning like cicadas. Led by violinist Jason Kao Hwang, the Far East Side Band mixes its Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and American heritages into a sound that is both meditative and prickly. With Sang-Won Park playing stringed instruments like kayagum and ajang, Joe Daley on tuba and electronics, and Sato Takeishi performing with a variety of traditional and homemade percussion instruments, the band’s singular sound comes across as an ingenious mixture of downtown New York’s grittiness and artisan Asia’s ancient connection to nature. Hear worlds blend when the Far East Side Band plays at 7:30 p.m. at the Freer Gallery’s Meyer Auditorium, 12th & Jefferson Drive SW. Free. (202) 357-4880. (Christopher Porter)