In 1993, Terry Clouse and Jody Park began collaborating on a musical project. Instead of continuing to beat the tired path of rock styles of the time, they decided to do something more personal and exciting. Drawing upon early influences including anything from classical composers to punk rock, they began writing material that would eventually manifest into Privy Member. This band, consisting of heavy keyboard compositions, included Jo Whitaker on drums and Jack Gray with vocals. They began to record, but due to personal differences, the album was shelved.

Undaunted, Jody and Terry recruited new members Scott Ratchford (drums) and Henry Bones (guitar/vocals). The new quartet, now called Somnambulist, wrote six songs to demo at Glass Hammer's Studio Sound Resources. Steve Babb (GH) brought them to the attention of Ken Golden of Laser's Edge. Ken heard the potential and signed the band, funding their debut album, "Somnambulist," (le 1027), which was released in mid 1996.

After the album's release, the band began writing material for a follow-up. Much to their surprise, Scott announced he was leaving. The trio then took some time off to regain a sense of direction. A few months later, Bones decided to relocate to New York to pursue other interests.

Italy's black Widow records, unaware of the state of the band, asked that they contribute a piece for their upcoming compilation, "...e tu vivrai net terrore," an album paying homage to the horror film genre.
Terry and Jody collaborated with Mike Kite (drums) of Chattanooga for this project. The resulting song was the goblinesque "Laudenam." After this, the desire to continue Somnambulist was re-ignited.

The band continued to evolve, gaining and losing members, even recording an album only to be shelved in the end. Another vacation ensued. In early 1999, Jody witnessed a young guitarist in a local bar. Realizing he was the man for the job, Jody presented Charlie Shelton with a spot in the band. Charlie accepted and the "new" trio began writing new material. The search for a drummer ended with Charlie's suggestion of re-enlisting former Privy Member alumni Jo Whitaker. Next, Brian King was added to complete the outfit. Four months later, Somnambulist was invited to play Baltimore's Orion Studios supporting Scott McGill's Hand Farm. Brian left the band shortly after to pursue a writing career.

Once again, a vocalist was needed. Peter Cornell happened to be playing in one of Chattanooga's local clubs, the Lizard Lounge. Charlie was there and was impressed with his vocal talents and showmanship. The two spoke after the show and Peter was presented with a demo of new Somnambulist material to see if he would be interested in doing some vocal work. He was, and began creating lyrics and recording tracks. October 2002 saw the release of the band's second full-length album, "The Paranormal Humidor."

The band, stronger, tighter and in the process of writing their third album, is experimenting in another arena - totally instrumental. This seemed to be a logical step for the entire band and, after Peter's absence, decided to proceed in this direction.