CYON FLEX / Tara Ann-Marie Allen, B.A.
Archive
Music, performances, visual art and writing from my work as CYON FLEX, Zion Flex and Testimony MC. More than twenty years of making work.
Music & releases
2026
That’s Rich
23 May. Ten-track album, produced, mixed and mastered by Pastelcase. My lyrics and vocals; vocal recording by DJ King.
2025
Prologue
1 September. Five tracks produced by IDKLANG. Vinyl release event in October.
2024
Into the Night
6 September. Four-track release with Nono Punch production, available digitally and on USB, with a comic made with S.R. Ayers. I wrote and directed the connected animated music video, Watch Me Rise.
Epilogue
1 December. Five tracks produced by Gran Bankrott. Recording, mixing and mastering by DJ King.
2023
We Got This
2 June. USB album and release concert at Banc Public. Ten digital tracks, produced by Def Ill. Cover art by Ella Bryden Design.
2021
Loyalty
September. Eight-track self-released CD, made with Def Ill / Def III and Ruffian Rugged.
2020
Pieces
11 June. One-track release.
2018
Queen of Herz
19 April. Feel, Seeds and Slayed, released digitally and on CD. Bristol CD launch at Full Moon and Attic Bar on 29 November.
2012
The Blame Game
Akasha FX featuring Zion Flex. Released on Filter Label on 5 November; also included on Filter Presents the Best of 2012 Vol. 2.
2011
Hypervigilance
Physical CD with Pastelcase. Our collaboration continued through to That’s Rich in 2026.
2010
The Eau
Physical CD release.
2009
An Exercise in Scales and Balances
CD with Tom McAllister. The booklet is dated 2008.
Performances
2023
Moonshinerz
27–30 July. Hip-hop festival in Leutschach.
Dortmund Goes Black
3 February. Concert programme with Shelly Quest and Justice Lucamo.
Listening Picnic
13 August. Contributor to Tonica Hunter’s Kultursommer event at Reithofferpark.
2022
Pop-Kultur Berlin
25 August. Soda Salon, 23:00.
Popfest Wien
30 July. Prechtlsaal, 23:00. Also part of Tonica Hunter’s installation To Speak and to Thrive and to Live at Club U.
Kultursommer Wien
11 August. Concert at Karl-Marx-Hof.
STERRRN / The Great Reclaim
25 June: STERRRN with DJ Yomomma at the Austrian Sculpture Park. 10 June: The Great Reclaim at Stadtwerkstatt, Linz, with Evidence and Hella Comet.
20 years of fluc
28 April. Anniversary and Ukraine benefit performance.
On the Edge 8
26 November. WUK festival closing concert.
2021
Kerosin95 / WUK
6 September. Support performance on the album tour.
Fridays for Future
24 September. Performance with DJ Yomomma at Vienna’s global climate strike.
2020
Out of (Ab)stand129
29 August. Finissage performance with Cam Rose and Bad & Boujee, curated by Tonica Hunter.
Female Culture Clash / Kultursommer
7 March: Weberknecht. 10 July: Kultursommer at Naschmarkt. Also FemFriday poetry and QMA exhibition music.
Black Lives Matter Vienna
5 June. Took part in the event in Vienna.
2019
Viennale
28 October. Live with DJ Yomomma at Kunsthalle Wien, 21:00.
Donauinselfest
21 June. Performance with DJ Yomomma at the Eutopia stage.
FemFriday / Weltmuseum Wien
22 March. FemFriday 8 with Raja Kumari.
Hiphop Goes Landstrasse
Performance with DJ Yomomma at Kardinal-Nagl-Park, documented by Delay Magazine with photographs by Jakob Untner.
Music in public space
Donnerstag demonstrations on 25 April and 30 May; Ibizado! on 18 May; Improper Walls exhibition vernissage on 25 September; Signale 19 at Arena Wien with DJ Yomomma on 26 September.
2018
Bad & Boujee / Common Contact
Member and performer with Bad & Boujee; fluc first-birthday event on 23 March. Live set at Common Contact’s first anniversary at EKH on 23 November.
2017
Femme DMC
Member and performer. fluc performances on 28 January and 8 March; further work with the collective included Popfest’s Femme DMSisters and Camera Club.
2014
Kuumba / Brixton Jamm / Runtin
3 May: Kuumba Centre, Bristol. 26 May: DJ set with Smiley at Brixton Jamm. 25 July: Runtin at Camera Club, Vienna, with Buggsy.
2013
Soul Freedom residency
Resident as Testimony MC / Zion Flex at Bristol Fringe. Dated events on 3 May and 7 June.
2012
Brisfest
22 September. Weapon of Choice stage.
2011
Trinity / Sarajevo
Indie Soul Mixer at Trinity, Bristol. Special UK guest at Kao Neki Dernek 2 in Sarajevo on 19 February.
2010
France
September performances in Marseille and Montpellier.
Visual art & writing
2026
TARA WELT
TARA WELT — CYON FLEX opened at OIS WOS RECHT IS, Vienna, on 2 October.
SUCCESSION / Lagoon / Room for People
My current writing and visual practice includes SUCCESSION, issue one: Room for People and issue two: The Pecking Order; Lagoon, my illustrated fiction; and the 13-part Room for People manifesto. Collage, painting, drawing, comics and writing.
2022
My His/Her/Queer-Story Wasn’t Taught at School
Exhibiting artist in Queer Museum Vienna’s Black History Month exhibition at Volkskundemuseum, 10 February–4 March.
Critical Correctness
5 November. Panel at Kunstraum Innsbruck with Julia Golser and Camila Nicole Montero Trujillo.
2020
The Perfume / WIENWOCHE
Developed together with Mirabella Paidamwoyo Dziruni and Eric Vale. Performance, video, photography, painting, music, scenography and costume at Zacherlfabrik.
2013
Urban Group Show
Exhibiting artist at It’s All 2 Much Gallery, Bristol, 7 June–7 July.
Press & radio
2026
Radio Panik
Further plays following the addition of Ego to the station’s jukebox in 2024, with broadcasts documented across 2025 and 2026.
2025
Orange 94.0 / UnterTage
Featured in the 28 September programme.
2024
Mica / Austrian Music Export / Extra-Music
Interview with Christoph Benkeser on 3 September. Into the Night reviewed by Extra-Music on 4 November.
Radio Helsinki / Gen Z
CYON FLEX featured on 15 September and 22 December.
2023
We Got This / profiles
Tonica Hunter interview for Mica / Austrian Music Export; freitagsmedien review; WithGuitars feature; portrait at 365 Fe*male MCs.
FM4 / Radio Helsinki
FM4 Black History Month special on 21 February; Comment with Def Ill on Tribe Vibes, 1 June. Radio Helsinki’s grazil FM played Loyalty on 25 July and Protest in its August Moonshinerz recap.
2022
FM4 / Augustin / Radio Agora
FM4 profile; Augustin interview, I Do Music for Me First. Loyalty featuring Def III on KIKK OFF za kulturo, Radio Agora, 3 July.
2021
O-Sounds / The Message / ORF / MDW
18 April: hour-long live performance and interview on Orange 94.0. The Message reviewed Loyalty and reported my Heimat Fremde Heimat TV appearance. MDW included me in its history of women rappers. FM4 played Knock, Knock on 25 September.
2020
Orange 94.0
Feel broadcast on 6 August. Music recommendation by The Future for Struma and Iodine on 29 May.
2019
FM4 / BBC / RadioMuse
FM4 interview and Seeds live on 17 January; BBC News feature. Slayed on Late Night Lemonade on 26 October and RadioMuse 15 in November.
2018
FM4
Dalia’s Late Night Lemonade first-anniversary programme with DJ Yomomma on 7 April. Slippery Slope broadcast on 16 June; Slayed on La Boum de Luxe in October.
2011
Radio Cardiff
Soul Freedom interview, freestyle and All We Have Is, Music Box and The Keys on 29 May. The Keys played again on 5 June.
Recognition
2023
Austrian Music Fund
Selected in Call 54 for Into the Night, among 21 productions selected from 199 applications.
SKE
Production support for Into the Night.
Preis der freien Szene Wiens
We Got This appears as entry 78 in the published submissions catalogue.
2021
The Message Awards
Loyalty received an honourable mention in Future Sound of the Year. Published in January 2022.
kultür gemma!
Artist grant and scholarship support for my album project with Def III.
2020
Question Me & Answer / On Stage
Winner distinction. The award led to the Loyalty video production with Rupert Höller.
2007
B.A. Honours
Content Creation for Broadcasting and New Media at Ravensbourne College, graduating with a 2:1.
Bristol roots & wider collaborations
My early work grew through Bristol youth arts and music, from the Basement Project and the CRE8 Change the Way project with Roots Manuva to independent recording.
I was part of and performed with Project 13 and Dutty Girl. I promoted Bristol music events in 2005–06, with production, radio and performance showcase work during a 2006 Remix internship.
My wider live history includes St Paul’s Carnival, Brighton Street, Arts House, Golden Lion, Greenbank, Mr Wolf’s, Cosies, Start the Bus and Leftbank; collaborations with Roots Daughters and DUBOMB; and shows in Maribor, Poland and northern Italy.
I also work as music producer and team member with The Chance, a Black-owned media project.