When the Bedouin Jerry Can Band steps on stage in their traditional attire to sing ancient songs from the Sinai desert, their unusual musical instruments — an ammunition box and a jerry can used for percussion — are among the first things the audience notices.

The band came together in 2003 at the suggestion of Zakaria Ibrahim, a well-known music festival organizer, composer and founder of the El Mastaba Center for Folk Music in Cairo. 

“Ibrahim suggested that we form a Bedouin band and play Sinai folk music,” Yahya al-Shorbagi, flute player and founder of the band, told Al-Monitor. “At that stage, we only had a flute and a few tambours. We also had a small empty ammunition box and a jerry can, a type of container soldiers used to transport petrol during the war, both from the 1967 war with Israel.”

The band released its first album, “Coffee Time,” a collaboration with Ibrahim and his British partner. Shorbagi noted, “It received broad acclaim in Europe, and [we sang] in several festivals there. We then started doing concerts in the UK. In 2008, we participated in a festival in Manchester City, we held concerts in Liverpool, and then we sang in concerts in Spain, a festival in Marseilles, and then New Zealand in 2009.”