Describing his creations as “music for your soul”, the versatile 40K is as much a mood-setter as he is a producer. The artist aka Ajay Gill has been beat-maker since the early 2010s, adapting his skill set to whatever talent he’s collaborating with in his studio in Surrey, BC, Canada. For one of his earliest EPs, 2016’s .51, he laid down a succession of heavy, brooding beats for rapper Kustom, sparking a partnership they would rekindle two years later on Guest House and again on smoother cuts such as “Unpause”. For Vancouver rapper MONEYONYOURMIND’s hazy and heavily autotuned vocal style, the producer employed stretched-out synths and deep bass drops to create a hypnotic trap dreamscape, as on 2023’s dreamy “4Ever”. A similar vibe is evident on 40K’s work with Punjabi-Canadian artists Karan Bhargava and Sharn—both also based in Surrey—including mesmeric 2021 ode “Dil Tutteya”. Between his link-ups with other talent, Gill is equally at ease on his own terms, flitting between neon-lit electro (2019’s “Temple of Funk”), atmospheric deep house (2022’s “Confess”) and breezy garage (2022’s “Motions”). In 2021, his diverse and unpredictable body of work in R&B, hip-hop and electronic music earned him a nomination for Canadian radio station CIVL’s Fraser Valley Music Awards Electronic Artist of the Year.