Alexia Thomas, DJ Juwellery Weekends in the Park (2024)
Alexia Thomas’ “Weekends in the Park” pairs its piano-bass build with the storytelling element of a park-atmosphere recording, and while Thomas describes herself as a “newcomer” in her artist’s bio, the easeful picture she paints with the opening lines, “Weekends in the park with loved ones / Feel the grass beneath our bodies soft,” is ancient:
The concept of parks and public gardens as spaces to relax and rest in goes back all the way to the Achaemenid Empire. These landscaped gardens originating in western Asia (“pari-daiza-” in Old Persian, the root of the word “paradise”) were famous throughout cultures in the age of Classic Antiquity, the most famous example being the Gardens of Babylon.
The famous terrace gardens are said to have been built by King Nebuchadnezzar II for his wife between 600-560 BCE. Or perhaps by the legendary Lydian-Babylonian queen Semiramis. Or perhaps—well, truth be told, we just don’t know. In fact, we cannot be sure whether the famous Gardens of Babylon really existed at all. That’s partly because the only known documents discussing these gardens are from Ancient Greece and include no first-hand accounts. There’s also the lack of archaeological evidence: The ruins of the Gardens might exist, but if they do, they most likely are somewhere below the ruins of Babylon currently being excavated, and these cannot be destroyed, of course.
So, we’ll never know for sure, but either way, the Gardens of Babylon remain a popular motif in the arts, and even 2,500 years after their possible construction, they fascinate us enough to speculate about their possible existence. Everyone, it seems, forever shares Alexia Thomas’ longing for more restful weekends in the park.
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