For the first test I just went with connecting all 32 pins of the matrix to a board (the 8 anodes were connected over a MOSFET). The board I used was my SAMD51 Breakout Board, I got CircuitPython running on it an used an array of 32 DigitailInOut objects to control the matrix. I don't have the code on me right now, will update later.

It was, of course, possible to drive the matrix this way but it used way too many GPIOs, even though it was kinda fun ;)