"Burial's one of the most wonderful people I've ever met," Goulding says of the mysterious U.K. electronic artist.

Acclaimed electronic artist Burial never appears in public, does not perform live and worked anonymously before 2008, when he was revealed to be London native William Bevan. Little is known of the U.K. dubstep star, and few artists have ever met him in person -- but one who has is Ellie Goulding, who calls Burial an "all-time hero."

"Burial's one of the most wonderful people I've ever met," Goulding told Billboard in a recent interview. "We stay in touch, and this sounds super weird, but he kind of looks over me in a weird way."

Goulding says that Burial, whose sophomore album "Untrue" was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2008, was aware of her music at the beginning of her career, "from the MySpace days," before she signed to Polydor Records in 2009. Since then, they have been admirers of each other's music, with the "Burn" singer immediately consuming Burial's Hyperdub releases, most recently last year's "Rival Dealer" EP, when they materialize.

"He's just one of those remarkable people that you come across that are so rare -- he's so shy and quiet, but he's really hard to explain," Goulding says. "I'm constantly fascinated by him. I've only had a few encounters with him, but they were really intense. I may never see him again, but we stay in touch constantly."

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Unlike Burial, Goulding does perform live, and does so quite often: the U.K. pop star has been "touring non stop since 2009," currently plowing through a North American headlining tour. However, Goulding says that she understands why Burial chooses not to perform his music live, and completely respects that decision.

"I think it's so admirable," she says. "Obviously I make money for what I do and promote myself, but I always remember him, in everything. The nobleness of it, where you're just making music and making people happy … I use a bit of that for myself."

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