From Overclocked Remix's FF6 compilation, Balance and Ruin:
http://ff6.ocremix.org/

On The Run (The Returners)

Leitbur (“light-brr”) is an on-going electronic music project by Jaron Widman and Samantha Krzyston.

Leitbur has its origins in Los Angeles, where Widman had been experimenting with sound and songwriting while studying film production at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. After seeing the similarities between both disciplines, Widman began constructing his songs like his short films — each filled with autobiographical scenes, characters, and the occasional flashback or dream sequence. Widman uses the mood and tone of the 1980’s like a cinematographer, framing each song with care, to tell stories that are in equal parts nostalgic, sweet, and filled with pathos.

Later, Widman began colloborating with Chicago-to-L.A. transplant Krzyston, an aspiring psychotherapist and vocalist. Their romantic relationship caused Leitbur to become a film with two main characters. Soliliquies became conversations, and many of the warmest — and most painful— moments of their relationship were turned into their own scenes. Two EPs were made, Think of Tomorrow in 2012 and The Moment That I Knew You in 2015, before the release of a full-length album, Antique Travelers, in May 2016.

A Hertfordshire lad and self-taught electronic music producer, Myles’ creative journey started when he learned to play the guitar, violin and piano at the age of 15, getting a grounding in the basics of harmony and melody. But it wasn’t until he discovered Ulrich Schnauss’ debut album Far Away Trains Passing Me By that he found his true passion. From then on, he knew he wanted to produce his own electronic music.

He’s been doing just this since the early 2000s, developing a style that’s laid-back, detailed and melodic, drawing on the ambient and progressive movements to create tracks that take listeners on a journey through landscapes of sound. Inspired by film scores and uplifting music that tells stories, Myles is a huge fan of artists like Jon Hopkins, Nils Frahm and Ulrich Schnauss.

He self-released his debut album as Xspance, Night Echoes, in February 2014, on Bandcamp. Since then, he’s remixed numerous tracks for artists all over the globe, including Julie Mintz (a singer from electronica star Moby’s band), Russian Linesman, Fractal Architect, and many more. His remix of a track from Echaskech’s album Origin featured in the huge charity compilation Touched Two. 

After being discovered by Norman Hines’ Stripped label, Xspance released his sultry track “Disappear With Me”, which led to him releasing his first 10-track LP, Melodyheart, for Tripswitch’s label Section Records. This attracted attention to the more eloquent side of the ambient electronic sound he was working with at the time, and over the years since he’s released a host of singles, EPs and LPs for a myriad of labels, including Just Music, Cinematique and Soundgarden. He has also collaborated with UK producer Audioglider to create two unique albums for Section Records - Kollision (2017) and Sensory Reception (2019) - which cleverly harmonise the artists’ individual electronic styles. 

Nowadays, Xspance’s music is highly regarded in the electronica community, garnering interest from prominent figures around the world, including top DJs Nick Warren, Solumun and Guy J. With listeners around the world, his music regularly reaches around 8000 streams a month on Spotify. Several of his recent releases have made it into the top ten most popular tracks on Beatport in the electronic and organic house genres, and he has in the past hosted his own monthly radio show, Eclipsed, for Bloop London. With a total of eleven long players to his name – including seven solo studio albums and four collaborative projects – he continues to release new material, including a long player titled Across Waves (2021, Astir Recordings) created in collaboration with US producer Joey Fehrenbach, and an LP collaboration, Merged Horizons, with UK-based DJ/singer-songwriter Daniela Rhodes, which is set to be released in 2022 alongside another solo album.