The music of TBS’s Sunday drama VIVANT is finally getting the “everything” treatment. TBS Sunday Drama “VIVANT” Original Soundtrack COMPLETE will be released on January 13, 2027 (Wed.) as a 4-CD set and digitally on the same day. The catalog number is UZCL-2348–51 and the price is 5,500 yen (tax included). The music is by Akira Senju, Tatsuhiko Saiki and Shu Kanematsu, and the set is billed as a complete collection of all the music from the VIVANT series.

For those who can’t wait, two tracks are already out. The new main theme introduced in season 2, “Qarabağ Şikəstəsi in VIVANT,” and “Beppan Ceremonial Music” (Beppan Gireikyoku), which suddenly played in episode 21 and caused a stir online, have been available on streaming and download services since November 9 (Mon.). When headlines start promising you can “commute to the Beppan Ceremonial Music,” you know a drama score has truly entered everyday life.

The director gave just one instruction

Essential reading right now is “Playing VIVANT,” an essay Senju himself wrote for the December 2026 issue of Bungeishunju. Director Katsuo Fukuzawa gave him one instruction only: “Write music that anyone who hears it will recognize as VIVANT.” Then the director left for the filming location in Mongolia — and Senju took that as a sign of trust.

That one line is a crucial guide to hearing this score. In a show that swings from suspense to action to family drama from scene to scene, the top priority was a theme that sounds like VIVANT wherever you cut into it. The way the main theme keeps returning in different guises, such as <Adagio> and <Energico>, is exactly how that brief was answered. There’s also a moving thread here: Senju, who wrote the piano concerto “Shukumei” for TBS’s 2004 drama Suna no Utsuwa, is once again carrying a Sunday-night TBS serial on a single theme two decades later.

From the Mongolian desert to Azerbaijani voices

The biggest “sound event” of season 2 is surely the new main theme. “Qarabağ Şikəstəsi in VIVANT” is a collaboration between Azerbaijani singers Alim Gasimov and Farghana Qasimova and Akira Senju, newly recorded to match season 2’s filming location, Azerbaijan.

If season 1 (2023) conveyed its scale through an orchestra charging across the desert, season 2 invites the voice of the land itself into the theme. A new setting moves the main theme’s lead from instruments to voices — a bold move for a serial drama score.

LP, film, concerts: the holidays become “VIVANT season”

Line up the schedule and the musical momentum is clear.

  • December 2: 12-inch LP “VIVANT” THE VINYL (Anchor Records / 5,500 yen). Ten tracks hand-picked by Senju: nine from the season 1 soundtrack, plus “Qarabağ Şikəstəsi in VIVANT.”
  • December 4: The film version opens.
  • January 13, 2027: The complete soundtrack (4 CDs / digital).
  • January 15, 2027 (Osaka) and January 26–27 (Tokyo): The second VIVANT orchestra concert, at Festival Hall in Osaka and Tokyo International Forum Hall A, conducted by Akira Senju.

If the LP is “the composer’s top ten,” the complete set is “everything.” Listening to both side by side should reveal which pieces Senju considers the face of VIVANT. And just two days after the complete set comes out, the Osaka concert takes place — study up with four discs, then check your answers in the hall. The timing is almost too neat.

A score built by three composers now offers listeners every step: a single streaming track, a ten-track LP, a four-disc CD set, and a live orchestra. It looks set to be a model holiday season for how drama scores reach their audience today. Start with “Beppan Ceremonial Music,” streaming since November 9, for your commute.