AUSTRALIAN vocal trio Touchwood make their first visit to York on Thursday to play the Black Swan Folk Club in Peasholme Green.

Kate Andrews, Christina Mimmocchi and Terry Clinton came together four years ago in Sydney and have performed extensively across Australia.

They released their debut album, The Great City, in 2001, the year when they made their first, brief trip to Britain and Ireland, and now they return for a longer tour in support of new album Big Things.

Club organiser Roland Walls says: "Touchwood have a reputation for rich vocal harmonies, original arrangements and a repertoire that ranges from the medieval to the modern.

"They share eclectic musical tastes, so a popular song of the Renaissance could be followed by a Victorian parlour ballad, then an Australian bush poem set to music and a modern pop or protest song. They even claim to be the only band in the world that plays a Tom Waits song on Renaissance instruments."

Andrews, Mimmocchi and Clinton specialise in vocal harmony arrangements, often a cappella but sometimes adorned by guitar, lute, mandola, percussion and vihuela (a precursor of the guitar).

Doors open at 8pm on Thursday (29th); admission is £5, concessions £4.

Updated: 15:51 Thursday, July 22, 2004